Dear brethren, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is meant for something better
than to make us glad, but it is meant to make us glad too, and he is but
a very poor Christian who has not found that it is the joy and rejoicing
of his heart. We need not put too much emphasis and stress upon that
side of the truth; but we need not either suppress it or disregard it in
our modern high-flown disinterestedness. There are joys worth calling so
which only come from possessing this fountain of salvation. How shall I
enumerate them? The best way, I think, will be to quote passages.

There is the gladness of forgiven sin and a quieted conscience: 'Make me
to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which Thou hast broken may
rejoice.' There is the joy of a conscious possession of God: 'Blessed
are 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.' There is the joy of fellowship and communion with Jesus Christ and
His full presence: 'I will see you again; and your hearts shall rejoice,
and your joy no man taketh away from you.' There is the joy of willing
obedience: 'I delight to do Thy will.' 'It is joy to the just to do
judgment.' There is the joy of a bright hope of an inheritance
'incorruptible,' 'wherein ye greatly rejoice,' and there is a joy which,
like that Greek fire they talk about, burns brighter under water, and
glows as the darkness deepens--a joy which is independent of
circumstances, and can say, 'Although the fig-tree shall not blossom,
neither shall fruit be in the vines, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.'

And all that, brother and friend, may be yours and mine; and then what
this same prophet says may also be true: 'The ransomed of the Lord shall
return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their
heads'--that is for the pilgrimage; 'They shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away'--that is for the home. There is