Joy and Peace

  Christ never asks us to give up merely for the sake of giving up, but always in order to win something better. He comes not to destroy, but to fulfill,—to fill full,—to replenish life with true, inward, lasting riches. 

  His gospel is a message of satisfaction, of attainment, of felicity. Its voice is not a sigh, but a song. Its final word is a benediction, a good-saying. "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full."

  If we accept His teaching we must believe that men are not wrong in wishing for happiness, but wrong in their way of seeking it. Earthly happiness,—pleasure that belongs to the senses and perishes with them,—earthly happiness is a dream and a delusion. But happiness on earth,—spiritual joy and peace, blossoming here, fruiting hereafter,—immortal happiness, is the keynote of life in Christ.

And if we come to Him, He tells us four great secrets in regard to it.

1. It is inward, and, not outward; and so it does not depend on what we have, but on what we are.

2. It cannot be found by direct seeking, but by setting our faces toward the things from which it flows; and so we must climb the mount if we would see the vision, we must tune the instrument if we would hear the music.

3. It is not solitary, but social; and so we can never have it without sharing it with others.

4. It is the result of God's will for us, and not of our will for ourselves; and so we can only find it by giving our lives up, in submission and obedience, to the control of God.

For this is peace,—to lose the lonely note
Of self in love's celestial ordered strain:
And this is joy,—to find one's self again
In Him whose harmonies forever float
Through all the spheres of song, below, above,—
For God is music, even as God is love.