September 11

In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. - Psalms 16:11.

WE may consider this as importing the dignity of the believer’s joy. There are many joys that are ignominious. Such are the pleasures so eagerly sought after by the men of the world. They are a shame to their possessors; they, therefore, require darkness; and it will soon be said to them, “What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.” There are other pleasures that are humiliating. We enjoy them in common with the brutes that perish, and perhaps in a far less perfect degree: the mind loves not to dwell upon them; we make them not the topic of conversation. We speak more highly of some other pleasures,-the pleasures of music, the pleasures of science, the pleasures of kindred and friendship; these are more noble and praiseworthy; but even in much wisdom there is much grief, and he “that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow;” and the knowledge of many of those things on which we may pride ourselves, and for which we may be admired by others, will soon be useless; for “whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.”

But the apostle speaks of another joy, and says, “Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord;” and there is not only an excellency in this knowledge, but there is also an excellency in this joy. It will bear examination; it will justify review. An angel may come and look into a Christian while he is rejoicing, and he will not have to blush; and the angel, if he were Gabriel himself, would approve and applaud. It is joy that reaches the noblest part of man; it enters the soul, it makes the soul “glad with the light of God’s countenance.” There is nothing impure, nothing of dross, in this joy; it is as pure as the air of Paradise, it is as “clear as crystal,” as the water of the “river of life” proceeding from “the throne of God and the Lamb.” It ennobles the possessor; and therefore Isaiah says, “The redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads.”

This seems a strange kind of expression. What has joy, it may be asked, to do with the head? joy belongs to the heart. Yes, as to the feeling of it: but Isaiah is speaking of it as an ornament; he is comparing it to a crown that bedecks the brow of a Christian traveller and sparkles in the eyes of beholders, so that when they meet him they say, “There is a distinguished character; there goes a great conqueror or a king; you see he is crowned!” And there is nothing by which Christians can so recommend the religion of Jesus, and adorn the doctrine of Christ their Saviour, as this. It elevates the possessor. It makes him look down upon and despise the business of sin and the dissipations of the world, and relinquish these, just as a man who is full grown will give up the toys of childhood,-just as a thirsty man will turn away from the filthy puddle when he comes within sight of the fountain of living waters.

Those are exceedingly mistaken, therefore, who are ready to pity Christians because they think they are restrained from those amusements and those dissipations which seem essential to their very existence. But let such remember that Christians are not restrained from them: they are weaned from them; and they are weaned from them by the discovery and realization of something infinitely better.