September 9

"They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest." Isaiah 9:3.

THREE circumstances are here mentioned: they joy; they joy before thee; they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest. Each of these will supply an interesting and useful meditation.

THEY JOY.

Among the many mistakes entertained concerning religion, no one is more common than the notion that it prescribes a forced, gloomy, melancholy course, engaged in which we must bid adieu to every thing like pleasure. And nothing can be more injurious than this notion, for men will naturally turn from religion while they view it as the enemy of their happiness. But nothing is so unfounded and false as this opinion. Let us take it to three tribunals.

Let us bring it to the bar of reason. It must be allowed that God is able to make us happy or miserable. And if so, is it likely that he will suffer those who hate and oppose him to be happy, and those who love and try to please him to be miserable? What a notion of the Supreme Being would this imply. And what could equally blaspheme his character? And has a hope that my sins are pardoned; that God is my Father; that Providence is my guide; that death is my friend, and that heaven is my portion, a tendency to inspire me with sadness, or with joy? And which is most adapted to make me wretched or comfortable within; malice, or benevolence; passion, or meekness; pride, or humility; envy, or complacency; anxiety, or confidence?

Distant things do not sufficiently impress us. We need something immediate. Our propensity to present gratification is powerful. And must not religion meet this state of feeling and provide for it? Thirsty as man is, if there be no pure stream at hand, will he not kneel down to the filthy puddle? What is to preserve us from being drawn away by the allurements and dissipations of the world, but our having something better to satisfy our hearts at home, and to keep us from roving? What can sustain us in our trials, and animate us in our duties, if destitute of present consolation? "The joy of the Lord is our strength." We shall soon decline a course in which we feel no interest or delight. And if we are strangers to holy pleasure, how can we impress others in favor of religion? It is by singing at their work that his servants praise their master, and prove that his yoke is easy and his burden light.

Let us take it to the bar of Scripture. Read the Bible all through for this purpose. Take its commands. What are these? "Rejoice in the Lord, and be glad, ye righteous; and shout aloud for joy, all ye that are upright in heart." "Rejoice evermore." "Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, rejoice." Take its promises. What are these? "Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice all the day; and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted." "The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs." "They shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before them into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." Take its representations. What are these? Go back to the beginning of the gospel. The first churches walked not only in the fear of the Lord, but "in the comfort of the Holy Ghost." Peter, addressing Christians at large, says, "in whom, believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." If we libel Christianity, and cause the way of truth to be evil spoken of, they honored it. What hindered their joy? Losses did not. "They took joyfully the spoiling of their goods." Persecutions did not. "They received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost." Guilt did not. They joyed in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom they received the atonement. Death did not. They longed to depart, to be with Christ, which was far better. Eternity did not. They were looking for the blessed hope, and hasting unto the coming of the day of God. Joy was then considered an essential part of genuine religion. The circumcision not only worshipped God in the spirit, and had no confidence in the flesh, but also rejoiced in Christ Jesus. And the apostle would as soon have excluded from it righteous conduct and a peaceable temper as spiritual joy: for says he, "the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."

Let us bring it to the bar of experience. Experience signifies knowledge derived from experiment, in opposition to theory and hypothesis. And experimental philosophy has been of late years much extolled. And why should not experimental religion be equally recommended? Is there no standard in spiritual things to which we can appeal? And is there no way of subjecting the truth and importance of their claims to trial? Many are, indeed, too careless and too prejudiced to pursue the process. But some have examined and reduced the subjects to decision. And they, and they only are the persons to whom you should repair in a case of this kind. They have this advantage over you. You have never tried their principles, but they have tried yours. You have never walked in their ways, but they have walked in yours, and know as well as you that they are not pleasantness and peace. And after trying your resources, and finding them to be vanity and vexation of spirit, they have tried the Saviour's blessings, and have found them to be full of grace and truth. At first they could only be swayed by faith, but now they have something more; they have the Witness in themselves. They know, for they have applied to him, that he is a suitable, a willing, a mighty Saviour. They know they were strangers to peace till they were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; but they have come to the blood of sprinkling. They know that once they were ignorantly asking, Who will show us any good? But they have found the fountain of life, and can say, It is good for me to draw nigh to God. They therefore ought to be heard. They can speak with confidence and earnestness, for they speak from experience. And this is their language: "Lo this, we have searched it, so it is; hear it, and know thou it for thy good." "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ."

Let us listen no longer to a report as false as it is evil. It is a good land which the Lord our God giveth us. Let no man's heart fail him.