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KING'S BUSINESS
8:10, we read, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” Every one here who has had anything to do with the teaching of children knows the won derful power of joy as an educator. Let the teacher be bright and joyous, and he or she will do very much in the direction of influencing the schol- ar. Joy is one of the prime forces in all natural education, and also in all spiritual influence as well. SOMETIMES SUFFER ING HARDENS. We know that there is the discipline of suffering. But suffering does not appeal to eyery one. There is a hard ening possibility in suffering, but there never is a hardening possibility in joy. Joy never hardens; it always softens and mellows and matures the character. So let us face this in the light of this passage from God’s Word, that joy is an absolute neces sity. Not very long ago a little child said concerning some clergyman, “He must be an excellent man, he looks so sad!” Some time ago there was in an English religious paper an advertise ment for a curate who must be “Pious but cheerful.” Mercifully, we have gone past those days; at least I hope we have! Still, there is a possibility that we may think excellency is asso ciated with sadness instead of with gladness. Now, joy is only possible in fellow ship with Jesus Christ. There is a close and necessary connection be tween verses 3 and 4, “Fellowship” and “joy.” That reminds us at once that joy is a condition of soul alto gether independent of circumstances. I pause for a moment to ask some of you, at least, to remember the dis tinction between happiness and joy. Happiness depends upon what happens and it is no play upon words that sees the connection between happiness and
that which happens—the hap, the cir cumstances of life. St. Paul could not have felt very happy when he said he was sorrowful; and yet he said “Sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing.” We are never told to be happy al ways ; that would be impossible. Hap piness to-day on the surface of our life is like the calm of the wave; un happiness would be like the turbu lence of the waves to-morrow. But joy is like the bed of the ocean, inde pendent of any changes on the sur face. It is ¡ “Rejoice in the Lord al ways,” because joy is a condition of soul in relationship with God in Christ. This joy is three-fold: the joy of the past, the joy of the present and the joy of the future—The joy of faith, the joy of love, the joy of hope; the joy of memory, the joy of experience, the joy of expectation; the joy of retrospect, the joy of aspect, and the joy of prospect; the joy of appropria tion, the joy of appreciation, and the j°y _of anticipation. Now, this is Christianity—joy, the fulness of joy, and the fulness of joy always. We ought to ask ourselves this morning whether this is true of us or not. The second part of the purpose of God, as of the writer of this Epistle, is A L IF E OF CONTINUAL SAFETY. “These things write I unto you, that ye may not sin” (ch. 2:1, R. V.). I express that as a life of continual safety. This is a subject that needs very careful study, and, therefore, very careful handling; but we shall be perfectly safe if we proceed along the line of God’s Word, going neither in front nor behind. First of all, I want to suggest to you that you study at your leisure every passage where the word “sin” occurs; chapter 1 :7, “Sin” ; 1:8, “No sin” ; 1:9, “Sins” ; 1:10, “Not sinned” ; 2:1, “Sin not” ;
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