THE SYMPATHY OF CHRIST
by Octavius Winslow
The Sympathy of Christ
with Spiritual Joy
"In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit" Luke 10:21.
It is a frequently-quoted remark of one of the fathers,
that Christ was often seen to weep, but never once to smile. We doubt both
the correctness and the wisdom of the statement. Our Lord was a man of joy
as well as a man of sorrow. He must, in the fathomless depths of His holy
soul, have been as intimately acquainted with gladness as with grief- with
the emotion of joy as with the feeling of sorrow. And can we picture Him to
our mind thus rejoicing in spirit, the oil of gladness poured upon Him
without measure, and insinuating itself into the innermost depths of His
being, without a gleam, a smile of joy lighting up that benign, placid, and
expressive countenance which more than all others must have been a perfect
index of the soul’s hidden, varied, and profound emotions? Impossible!
A portrait of Christ, with nothing but shadows– shadows of grief and sorrow
darkening the entire picture– would be lacking in one of its most essential
and life-like features. That a pure and deep joy never found a home in the
Savior’s breast, we cannot, then, for a moment credit. That His heart was
the seat of grief unmitigated, of sorrow unmixed- that, from that harp
breathed no sounds but woe- that from that fount of sensibility welled up no
emotions but found their utterance in sighs and groans and tears, is far,
very far from our conceptions of the Savior. And that, when the emotion of
joy did for a moment glow in the human soul of Christ, there was no
corresponding glow lighting up and illumining every feature of that
wonderful countenance, and for a while clothing it with the warm sunshine
and radiance of a holy smile, we cannot believe.
Again– Is the statement of Christ’s joyless expression wise? We think not.
It gives a wrong, distorted, gloomy portrait of His holy religion. The
religion of Christ is the religion of JOY. Christ came to take away our
sins, to roll off our curse, to unbind our chains, to open our prison-house,
to cancel our debt; in a word, to give us the oil of joy for mourning, the
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Is not this joy? Where can we
find a joy so real, so deep, so pure, so lasting? There is every element of
joy- deep, ecstatic, satisfying, sanctifying joy- in the gospel of Christ.
The believer in Jesus is essentially a happy man. The child of God is, from
necessity, a joyful man. His sins are forgiven, his soul is justified, his
person is adopted, his trials are blessings, his conflicts are victories,
his death is immortality, his future is a heaven of inconceivable, unthought
of, untold, and endless blessedness- with such a God, such a Savior, and
such a hope, is he not, ought he not, to be a joyful man?
We propose, in the further unfolding of this subject, to state the grounds
of the Lord’s joy, and the corresponding grounds of the spiritual joy of the
Lord’s people; thus illustrating the perfect sympathy of Christ with His
saints in this holy, elevated element of Christian experience. The varied
emotions of Christ never resolved themselves into empty sentiment, or
evaporated into mere feeling- which, alas! is so much the case with many of
His professed disciples- but that they were always in harmony with the
occasions which gave them birth: that they were either an embodiment of some
Divine principle or in illustration of some important truth, or in
connection with some beneficent act- a doctrine of the gospel propounded, or
a miracle of mercy wrought.
In the present instance (Luke 10:21), the joy of Christ is in connection
with the enunciation of one of the most important doctrines of the Bible-
the gospel, hidden to the worldly-wise, revealed to the spiritually
enlightened and taught. “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I
thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these
things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes: even
so, Father; for so it seemed good in your sight.” In tracing our Lord’s joy
to some of its causes, let us place this one in the foreground- His joy at
the sovereign revelation of His gospel to His disciples.
What a solemn, and equally true, statement of our great Teacher is this- the
gospel a hidden, concealed thing to the carnal mind! “You have hidden these
things from the wise and prudent.” The “wise and prudent,” in the general
acceptation of the title, include the great men of the unregenerate; all
those to whom the mysteries of the kingdom are not revealed; but, doubtless,
our Lord had a special reference to the carnally-wise, the lettered
philosophers of the world, who, wise and prudent in the learning and science
and arts of this life, were yet profoundly ignorant of the things of the
Spirit of God.
Now, this arises from no defect either in the nature of the gospel, or in
the evidence of its divinity, or in the simplicity of its statements. There
is everything in the gospel to awaken the intellect, to incite the
imagination, to gratify the taste, to enlist the sympathies and
sensibilities of the finest and most cultivated minds. Its themes of
thought, its touches of beauty, its unveilings of grandeur, its history, its
philosophy, its poetry, its science, are such as to charm and feast the
noblest intellect that ever shone in the world of mind. And when the soul at
first wakes up to the sublimity and power of the gospel of Christ, it
marvels and it wonders that all this magnificence and beauty and tenderness,
all these sources of the highest thought and purest feeling, should have
been so long and so deeply veiled from its view.
Nor does this ignorance of the gospel, and lack of interest in its
revelations, arise from any deficiency of evidence. God has made nothing
more demonstrably true than His gospel. If ever proof, self-evident and
overwhelming, accumulated around an object, that object is the glorious
gospel of the blessed God. Internal and external, immediate and collateral,
positive and presumptive, the evidences of the truth of the gospel are many
and mighty, convincing and conclusive, leaving the sceptic, unbelieving mind
without one excuse to justify or palliate at Christ’s tribunal the fearful
crime of its rejection.
If you, my reader, are rejecting the Bible on the ground of its
unsatisfactory proof, on the plea of its lack of evidence, and at the same
time, it may be, giving the fullest credence to some old wives’ fable
unsupported by one shadow of evidence, I bid you pause before you advance
one step further, and ponder these solemn, searching words of Christ- “This
is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love
darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.” Light is come-
the light of Christ, the light of revelation and the light of evidence.
Not for lack of light, then, will you finally be condemned. Then, for what?
For your willful rejection of that light. And why this rejection of the
light? Because you love the darkness of sin! Examine yourself honestly, and
ascertain if your infidelity, your scepticism, your unbelief, your quibbling
and caviling at the truth of the Bible, has not its seat, not in a mind that
cannot be convinced, but in a heart that will not!
Infidelity is not the child of reason; it is the deformed offspring of a
depraved heart. There is a love of sin- of some master, dominant sin-
underlying all scepticism. The light is rejected, because the darkness is
loved; the truth is renounced, because the sin is preferred. The Bible is
hated and ignored, because it is against sin, and testifies of the world
that the works thereof are evil. We reiterate the statement, that atheism
and infidelity are not the beauteous flowers of intellect, as some affirm,
but the indigenous plants of a sinful and sin-loving heart.
“The fool has said in his HEART”- not in his head; the intellect could not
affirm that- “there is no God.” The words, “there is,” are in italic,
denoting that our translators have supplied them, needlessly we think, so
that, viewing the passage as in the original, it would read- “The fool has
said in his heart- NO GOD”- that is, “No God for me, I want no God, though
in my judgment I know that there is one.” Such is the wisdom of the
worldly-wise and prudent. Truly may the apostle affirm, “the wisdom of this
world is foolishness with God,” and “the wisdom of God is foolishness with
men.”
Nor does this blindness of the unrenewed mind to the glorious gospel of the
blessed God arise from any lack of simplicity in the gospel. Inconceivably
great, indescribably grand, transcendently sublime as is the gospel of
Christ, it is the very essence of simplicity- as all God’s works and ways
are. Was ever any scheme, any plan, any command so simple as this, “Believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.”? And yet, this is the
whole gospel! This is the sum and substance of salvation! The first
principles of Christianity, the elements of the gospel, are few and simple.
And this forms the stumbling block- the naked simplicity of “the truth as it
is in Jesus.” The “wise and the prudent” stumble, not at the profoundness,
not at the grandeur, not at the difficulties of the gospel, but at its
severe, its pure, its perfect simplicity. And because it submits its
mysteries to faith, and not to reason; appeals to the heart, and not to the
intellect; demands the evidence of the child, and not the understanding of
the philosopher; the silent, lowly, believing homage of the soul, and not
the haughty, towering reasoning of the mind; the philosophizing,
pharisaical, and proud of this world instantly, scornfully, and totally
reject it.
Such is the solemn truth our Lord affirmed; and the entire analogy of
Scripture maintains the fact. The gospel is a hidden glory to the unrenewed
man. The apostle thus confirms the statement- “The natural man receives not
the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” The Greek is more
emphatic- “he is not able to know them”- his spiritual organs are impaired;
he has eyes, but the transcendent wisdom and sublimity of the gospel he sees
not; he has ears, but the thunders of its threatenings and the
soft-breathing music of its doctrines he hears not. With all his human
acumen- his attainments in philosophy, his discoveries in science, his
perfection in are, his power to sound the depths of human mystery, the Bible
is to him- unenlightened, untaught, unregenerated by the Spirit- a book
seven times sealed- he is not able to know it. And the poor, uneducated
peasant, dwelling in some lowly cottage, with nothing but his Bible and its
Divine Author to enlighten and instruct him, shall travel far into the
depths of revelation and sound their wonders; shall grasp the truths of the
Bible, understand their meaning, feel their power, receive their comfort,
and explain the mind of the Spirit with a lucidity, beauty, and power which
might put to the blush many an acknowledged champion of literature and many
a professed college professor.
And what causes the difference? The cottage learner of God’s Word is taught
by the Divine Spirit; the learned expositor of the schools still belongs to
the worldly “wise and prudent,” to whom the gospel is a hidden thing! My
reader, become a disciple of Jesus! Quit the schools and the teaching of men
for the school and the teaching of Christ. Receive the gospel as a little
child. Become a fool that you may be wise. Lay your human learning and
philosophy, your pride of intellect and of merit, beneath the cross, and
take your place at the Savior’s feet, and learn of Him, and be taught by Him
the truth as it is in Jesus. Be this your petition, urged importunately
until the Spirit responds- “Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things
out of Your law.”
We now turn to one of the causes of the Savior’s joy. “In
that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank you, O Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and
prudent, and Have Revealed Them unto Babes.” This was His joy- that His
Father, in the exercise of His electing love and sovereign grace and Divine
power, had passed by the worldly-wise and prudent, and had revealed the
glorious things of the gospel to those whom the world regarded as “babes” in
intellect, in power, and in knowledge. These “babes,” then, are not children
of tender years, but children in docility, humility, and simplicity; those
who not only “from a child have known the Holy Scriptures,” but who, as a
child, have received them into their understandings and hearts.
Now let us pause and press the inquiry- Has the gospel been revealed to you?
Has it pleased God to reveal His Son in you? Has the spirituality of the
Divine law been revealed to you? Has your condemnation under the law been
revealed to you? Has the plague of your own heart been revealed to you? Has
the salvation of Christ been revealed to you? In a word, has God in Christ,
and Christ Himself, the sent of God, the gift of God, the Son of God, been
revealed by the Holy Spirit to your soul? Take nothing for granted in
ascertaining this momentous matter. Assume nothing as true, unauthenticated,
unconfirmed, unsealed by the Holy Spirit. “The Spirit bears witness with our
spirit, that we are the children of God.”
Oh, what an unspeakable mercy- the greatness, the grandeur, the blessedness
of it, who can describe? -of having a revealed Christ to our souls! To have
the Divine truths, the precious promises, the glorious revelations, the
sublime hopes of the glorious gospel of the blessed God made known to our
minds, sealed upon our hearts, ingrafted upon our souls, is to be the
partakers of a joy such as glowed in the breast and lighted up the
countenance of Jesus in that hour when He looked up to heaven, and said, “I
thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have revealed these
things unto babes.” Do not rest short of this revelation by the Spirit of
Jesus to your soul. Without it you are lost- your religion is vain, your
evidences are spurious, your conversion is false, and your hope will make
you ashamed.
Another ground of the Lord’s joy was, the sovereignty of God thus displayed.
Seeing that the gospel, hidden from the wise, was revealed unto babes, and
resolving this into the sovereign will and discriminating grace of God, He
rejoiced in spirit, and said, “Even so, Father, for so it seems good in your
sight.” And here it is we must find a solution to what would else, in our
poor minds, appear partial, unjust, and inexplicable in God’s testimony of
His grace- why the gospel should be a hidden thing to one, a revealed thing
to another; why one should be called and another left, we can only explain
and understand in the exercise of that Divine sovereignty which belongs
essentially to God. “He gives no account of any of His matters.” Who are
you, then, O man, that replies against God? Shall not He, the Judge of all
the earth, do right? Has He not a right to do with His own as He will? And
in the merciful decisions of His grace, and in the awful decisions of His
Providence, and in the yet more tremendous decisions of His judgment, He,
the Most Upright, will be guided by the eternal principles of righteousness,
rectitude, and wisdom.
Beware, then, how you quarrel with God’s sovereignty! You touch one of the
most righteous principles of His administration, you shade one of the
brightest perfections of His being, you pluck one of the costliest gems from
His crown, when you attempt to arrest the sovereign exercise of His own
will. How clearly and emphatically is this set forth by the Holy Spirit!
“Who works all things after the counsel of His will.” “Of His own will begat
he us by the word of truth.” “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his
will.” “Therefore has he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will
he hardens.” "Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to
make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?” Let your whole soul,
amid the mysteries and shadows of the Divine administration of grace, bow
down to this glorious doctrine, exclaiming, “Even so, Father, for so it
seems good in your sight.”
This interpretation, too, of what is dark, inexplicable, and painful in the
providential dealings of God with you, will infuse joy and create repose
throughout your tried and agitated mind. God will have you meekly,
truthfully resolve all the mysteries, enigmas, problems of His divine
dispensations into this- “Even so, Father, for so it seems good in your
sight.” And the moment you are brought to acquiesce in the sovereignty,
equity, and love of God’s trying, afflictive, correcting dealings with you-
to feel that it is all right, all wise, all good, all faithful- your
storm-tossed, agitated barque is at anchor in the roads of perfect security
and peace.
Truly, this is joy! Here, then, is our Model- the joy of the Lord.
Surely if Christ was a man of joy, we, who are Christ’s, should be joyful
too. And yet how much this Christian grace is overlooked! How few aspire to
this attainment in the divine life! Joy is as much a fruit of the Spirit as
any other. “The fruit of the Spirit is- JOY.” And the Divine precept is,
“REJOICE in the Lord aways. And again, I say, REJOICE.” And was not this one
of the distinct blessings sought for His disciples in our Lord’s
intercessory prayer, “That they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves?”
He here prays His Father that His own personal joy- the joy of which He was
the subject- and the disciples’ joy- the joy of which He was the object-
might be realized in their experience. Did Christ thus care and pray for our
joy? Oh, then, let us not deem this too lofty, too holy an attainment in our
Christianity to aspire to.
To stimulate your aspirations after it, to aid your endeavors to climb this
sunlit height in your Christian experience, let me suggest the grounds you
have for holy, spiritual rejoicing in the Lord- and then remind you how
closely Christ sympathizes with you in your joy. Christian, what a ground of
joy is your possession of Christ! There is everything in Christ, and in the
knowledge and possession of Christ, to make the believing heart joyful. You
may have strong corruptions, powerful inbred sins, severe temptations, deep
trials, heavy afflictions, yet if you know Christ, and have Christ in the
midst of all, you have ground for the deepest, holiest joy. All joy apart
from Christ is but the inspiration of the wind.
The man who seeks the element of joy in his baptism, in his sacraments, in
his church, in his religious duties, in his zeal, in his usefulness, yes, in
anything outside of Christ, is building upon that which has no foundation.
It is a false, a spurious, a fatal joy, a joy which will prove but as the
crackling of thorns under a pot. But, beloved, we hope and speak better
things of you. You have found Christ, or rather, Christ has found you, and
you have in Him the substance, the essence, the fulness of all holy joy. You
possess in Christ a Divine Redeemer, a loving Friend, a sympathizing
Brother, an ever-interceding Intercessor, a powerful Advocate; One whose
presence is with you always, encircling you as an atmosphere in all places
and under all circumstances- truly this is a ground of the deepest, holiest
joy. Oh, what a portion is Jesus in a portionless world! What a rest is
Jesus in a restless world! What a joy is Jesus in a joyless world! What a
hope is Jesus in a hopeless world! Beloved, we too little and too
imperfectly realize what we possess in possessing Christ. Throw into one
scale all the good of the world, its rank, its honors, its wealth, its
pleasures- all the love, the kindness, the sympathy, the power of the
creature and of all creatures; and place in the other scale, CHRIST- Christ
as your Savior, Christ as your Friend, Christ as your Portion, and Christ as
your all--which kicks the beam? which sinks, and which rises? No, more- cast
into one scale poverty, and sickness, and affliction of every kind, and
sorrow of every form- the adversity that swept from you affluence, or the
bereavement that tore from you the creature- and place JESUS in the other-
Jesus in His deathless love, Jesus in His human sympathy, Jesus in His
boundless fulness, Jesus bearing you upon His heart in heaven, and receiving
you into His grace on earth--and then decide what should he the nature, the
depth, the music of your joy. “This is my Friend, and this is my Beloved.”
Oh, be joyful, then, believer in Jesus! There breathes not a being in the
universe- tried, tempted, sad though you are- who has greater reason to be
of a gladsome spirit than you.
Rejoice, then, in what Christ is in Himself- in His preciousness and
fulness; rejoice in what Christ is to you, and rejoice in what you are to
Christ. Truly, “we rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the
flesh.” The work of Christ is also a ground of joy to the Lord’s
people. There is everything in the salvation of the Lord to meet the
necessities of our soul, and therefore to inspire the emotion of joy. What a
source of the truest, purest, deepest joy is the blood and righteousness of
Christ- the finished work of Christ- the revealed, accepted sacrifice of
Christ- the infinite suffering of Christ- the resurrection of Christ from
the grave- and the present advocacy of Christ at the right hand of God!
Truly may “we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now
received the atonement.” Is not the forgiveness of all your sins- the full
justification of your person- your inalienable adoption into God’s family-
the complete payment of all that great debt you owed, and the assured and
certain prospect of being where Christ is, and with Christ, beholding His
glory forever, a well-grounded source of joy? Most truly!
Why, then, are you not a more joyful believer? Why go you mourning all your
days, without one gleam of sunshine, one thrill of joy, one ray of hope, one
note of praise? Is it not because you are looking to yourself and within
yourself, to the almost entire exclusion of Christ and of the great and
complete salvation wrought for you in and by Christ? No material for joy and
gladness, beloved, will you find within yourself. It is all sin there- all
corruption there- all gloom there. Its chamber of imagery is all dark, and
repulsive, and depressing. Oh, turn the eye of faith to Christ, look simply,
and fully, and exclusively at Him, and every chord of your soul will thrill
and resound with the joy of the Lord’s salvation. “I will greatly rejoice in
the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the
garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.”
And what a God and Father have you to rejoice in! Truly, here is a source of
spiritual joy the divinest and surest. To have a God to go to in all
difficulties, troubles, and fears; a Father to fly to with every pressure,
every sorrow, every need, His ear ever hearkening, His hand ever
outstretched, His power equal to His goodness, His ability to aid equal to
His readiness to aid, surely- with such a covenant God and such a loving
Father as ours- our spirit ought to rejoice more in “God our exceeding joy.”
There is everything in God to make us joyful all the day long.
All His perfections smile upon us in Christ, and all are pledged to defend
us, to provide for us, to supply us, and to bring us through all and out of
all the vicissitudes, trials, temptations, and sins of this present life
into life eternal. We rejoice so faintly in God, because we are so
imperfectly acquainted with Him. And we are so little acquainted with Him,
because we have so few close transactions with Him. We run to the creature-
we rest in the creature- we rejoice in the creature, until the Lord empties,
embitters, or removes the creature; and then we learn that “men of low
degree are a vanity, and men of high degree are a lie,” and that it is
better to put confidence in God, even our own God, than in earth’s mightiest
potentates. And, oh, what a new-born joy do we then find God to be! It would
seem as if we had never known, had never trusted, had never loved, had never
led to Him before.
The newly-broken cistern has given us a new, a more vivid view of the
Divine, the never-failing Fountain. The paralyzing of the human arm has
thrown us more entirely on the strength of the Divine arm. The utter vanity
and disappointment we have found in the creature has brought God more
really, fully, and blessedly into our soul; and we have learned more of Him
as our trust, our hope, our joy, more of His condescension, His faithfulness
and love, more of Him as our Father and our God, in that one, that earthly
disappointment, than we ever learned in all the fulness of the world’s
sufficiency. Child of God! rouse yourself to the truth that, be the depths
of your soul’s distress, or mental despondency, or temporal embarrassments
never so profound- too deep for human power to sound, soothe, or relieve-
yet you may hope and joy in God.
“I am the Almighty God” -God all-sufficient. God can, God will, God has
promised to help you. Let your faith reason thus- “Why are you cast down, O
my soul? and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet
praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.” God can make
you joyful amid the circumstances which else would make you sad. All things
may seem against you but the promises of God, all beings but the God of the
promises. Divine providences are dark, but the Divine promises are light.
And the very billows that swell, and foam, and surge around you, shall but
uplift and cast your soul more entirely upon the Rock that is higher than
you. Oh, I desire you to see what a source of joy you have in Jehovah amid
the joyless, sorrowful path you tread. There is everything in Him to make
you happy. Everything to win your confidence, to inspire your love, to
awaken your joy. Creatures shall fail, resources shall fail, hopes shall
fail, but GOD will never fail you. His love is as changeless, His power is
as omnipotent, His faithfulness is as firm, His resources are as boundless,
as infinite as His being.
Listen to the song of faith, sung by saints who have gone to glory, once as
tried, as tempted, as sorrowful as you--“My soul, wait only upon God; for my
expectation is from him.” “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the
goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; be of good
courage, and he shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.”
“Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the
vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no
food; the flock shall be cut off from the field, and there shall be no herd
in the stalls:” (what condition could be more barren and desolate?) “yet I
will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation,” (Hab.
3:17, 18.)
See how the believing soul may experience GOD, its exceeding joy- in the
depth of its exceeding trial. And all that He now asks at your hands is that
you will trust in Him. What though He has written you a widow, what though
He has made you fatherless, what though He has blown upon riches, blighted
health, bereaved you of friends, yet still He is your God, and your Father,
and your exceeding joy. Not one spring of His own love, and compassion, and
grace, and power is dried, whatever others have may have passed forever
away. “Come, let us return unto the Lord; for he has torn, and he will heal
us; he has smitten, and he will bind us up.”
Again, we find two notable instances of deep joy in the midst of deep
tribulation in the experience of David, worthy of our study. For a moment
the popular idol had become a subject of popular hate. The people spoke of
stoning David: “David was greatly distressed; for the people spoke of
stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved; but David
encouraged himself in the Lord his God,” (1 Sam. 30:6.) Has the creature
turned against you? Have you found popular favor but a floating bubble- the
fickle wind? Are those now against you who once rent the air with your
acclaim? Oh, see what a source of joy you have in God, and in the Lord your
God encourage yourself.
The other example is taken from a yet more tender, affecting page in David’s
history- the treason of Absalom. And yet, listen to his language in that the
deepest of a parent’s grief:- “Although my house be not so with God; yet he
has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure:
for this is all my salvation, and all my desire.” Beloved, take hold of this
covenant in this the dark stage of your journey. Be the cloud what it may
that enshrouds your path, be the sorrow what it may that wounds your heart,
be the hand what it may that wings the dart that pierces your soul, to this
everlasting covenant of grace, well-ordered and sure, take a firm grasp of
faith, and your soul shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
And do not overlook the ever fresh, ever perennial spring of spiritual joy
that flows from the throne of grace. Who can fully describe the joy which
prayer brings into the soul? God has graciously appointed this medium of
communication with Himself. Prayer is the soul’s safety-valve, and God’s
channel. This is the outlet of the soul’s deep overcharged feelings which,
but for this escape, would serve to rend it in twain. And it is the channel
through which the God of all comfort, who comforts those that are cast down,
conveys into the heart of His child the strong consolations of His love.
Oh, then, seek to enkindle your holy, spiritual joy at this blessed altar- a
throne of grace, accessible through Jesus, sprinkled with His blood,
encircled by every assurance and promise of acceptance and response, from
which none are debarred but those who debar themselves. Arise, and give
yourself to prayer. Prayer will turn your night of weeping into a morning of
joy. Prayer will dissipate the sadness, dissolve the cloud, quell the fear,
and calm the tempest of your soul. Prayer will restring and retune the
broken and silent chords of your heart, and you shall sing, “Blessed be the
LORD, because he has heard the voice of my supplications. The LORD is my
strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore
my heart greatly rejoices; and with my song will I praise him.” Betake
yourself, then, to the throne of grace, and, however sad and heavy be the
heart you bear to this hallowed spot, you shall return rejoicing in Christ
Jesus.
And what holy, spiritual, deep joy should fill your soul in the assured
prospect of your being in heaven! Believers rejoice too little in hope of
the coming glory. And yet what rich material for joy have we in the
anticipation of being forever with Jesus! Heaven should have a more direct,
powerful influence upon our minds than it has. It should be more exclusively
the center of our soul’s moral gravitation. Our affections, our meditations,
our aspirations, our longings should be oftener and more supremely there.
Heaven has every attraction to win, every prospect to soothe, every motive
to stimulate, every aspect to sanctify us in our homeward journey. Rejoice,
then, in the anticipation of glory. Let sick and suffering saints be joyful
on their beds; let afflicted saints be joyful in their tribulations; let the
laborings servants of Christ rejoice amid their toilsome, arduous,
self-denying service; let all rejoice in hope of the glory that is to be
revealed, when Christ shall say, “Come up here.” “Whom not having seen, we
love; whom though now we see him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory.”
And should not the coming of the Lord be to us a cause of longing,
spiritual, unutterable joy? Most assuredly! What theme more holy, what
prospect more comforting, what hope more blessed, what truth more
sanctifying than- the glorious appearing of our Lord! The Word of God speaks
of those who “love His APPEARING.” It exhorts the saints to be “looking for
and hastening unto the COMING of the day of God.” It comforts those who are
bereaved of holy ones by the assurance that, “those also that sleep in Jesus
will God bring with him.” And it supplies us with one of the most powerful,
most solemn, most winning motives to personal holiness--“The very God of
peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and
body be preserved blameless until the Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”
And, oh, what links of blessing bind us to this “blessed hope, the Glorious
Appearing of the great God our Savior!” What are some of them? We shall see
Him as He is- we shall be like Him- we shall appear with Him in glory- we
shall not be ashamed at His coming- we shall be blameless- we shall have
part in the first resurrection- we shall be reunited with those who died in
the Lord- we shall receive a crown of life- we shall reign with Him forever-
and we shall be with the New Jerusalem saints in the new heavens and the new
earth- “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall
be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any
more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Let the second coming of
the Lord, then, be more a theme of your devout meditation, a subject of more
prayerful study, an event of more ardent longing, and more believing,
hopeful, joyful expectation. “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for
such things, be diligent that you be found of Him in peace, without spot,
and blameless.”
Did Christ rejoice in spirit? Then He will sympathize with your gospel joy.
Do you rejoice that He came to save sinners- that He died for sinners- that
He receives sinners- the poorest, the weakest, the vilest? Then with this
holy joy trembling within your heart, Jesus your Savior warmly, tenderly
sympathizes. Think not that He will forbid, repress, or discourage it. Oh
no! He will rather mend the bruised reed and fan the smoking flax; He will
rather heal the broken bones that they may rejoice in His salvation.
Christ delights in your joy, loves your joy, is glorified by your joy; and
when He sees you resting in His blood and righteousness, coming in your
poverty to the unsearchable riches of His grace, in your emptiness to His
infinite fulness, in your guiltiness to His atoning blood, “He will rejoice
over you with joy; he will rest in his love; he will rejoice over you with
singing.”
Spiritual joy is a holy, sensitive plant- it shrinks from the rude, ungentle
touch- from every influence uncongenial with its heaven-born nature. Watch
it with sleepless vigilance- shield it with every hallowed defense.
There are many hostile influences to which it is exposed, any one of which
will seriously injure it. Temptation courted, sin tampered with, worldliness
indulged, the creature idolized, means of grace slighted, Christ
undervalued--any one of these things will damp your joy, cause it to shrink,
and compel it to retire. But nothing will sooner or more effectually do this
than looking away from the Object and Source of joy- the Lord Jesus Christ.
Your joy is not only of the Lord, but it is a joy in the Lord.
That which caused the Ethiopian eunuch to go on his way rejoicing was, not
his baptism- Christ-like as it was- it was CHRIST Himself. He had found
Christ the Messiah- Christ the Sin-Bearer, Christ the sin-atoning Lamb, as
preached by Isaiah in the fifty-third chapter of his evangelical prophecy,
and this it was that sent him on his way rejoicing! Oh, there is everything
in Jesus to inspire and increase your spiritual joy- and He who first
awakened in your soul the celestial emotion must sustain and nourish it. As
there is no music in the Aeolian harp until the wind breathes upon it- as
there is no perfume in the flower until the sun warms it- as there is no
verdure in the grass until the rain and the dew moisten it, so there is no
melody, no fragrance, no fruitfulness in the soul until it is brought into
close believing relation with Christ.
Again, I remark, there is everything in Christ to make you a joyful
Christian. There is all redundance of grace to subdue your corruptions, an
overflowing sympathy to soothe your sorrows, a sovereign efficacy in His
blood to cleanse your guilt, infinite resources to meet all your needs, His
ever-encircling presence around your path, His ceaseless intercession on
your behalf in heaven. His loving attention of all you feel, and fear, and
need--oh, is this not enough to make your heart a constant sunshine, and
your life a pleasant psalm?
But do not be discouraged, however, if you seldom reach this high attainment
in Christian experience. Many an eminent saint of God passes to the land of
light and song with little or no spiritual joy in his soul. It is not a
grace that is essential to salvation. It is but seldom remarked of our Lord
that He rejoiced in spirit- often that He sighed, and groaned, and wept. He
seemed more intwined with sorrow than with joy- better acquainted with grief
than with gladness. There may be many disturbing causes affecting and
preventing your spiritual joy. You may be constitutionally of a sad,
nervous, and pensive nature--you may be the subject of constant mental
depression, imparting its complexion of sadness and gloom to every bright
view of the present and hopeful expectation of the future.
There may be in your Christianity a tendency to look more to self than to
Christ; to dwell in contemplation more upon the interior of your own heart
than the interior of the Lord’s heart; to a microscopic view of your varied
and ever-fitful feelings, to a too close and minute analysis of Christian
experience; or, your path may be one continuity of shade flung upon it by
the pressure of a daily cross, a home sorrow, a lone grief, a physical frame
unstrung and shattered by disease; all, or any, of these causes may
contribute to the absence of spiritual joy in your soul.
But, yield not yourself, in consequence, to despondency and despair. It is
not spiritual joy that saves you- you are saved by faith in Christ, by
Christ, and with Christ. And in the absence of joy thrilling your soul,
illumining your countenance, and waking the echoes of the wilderness with
its melody, there is, perhaps, the quiet, simple recumbence of your faith on
Christ as all your salvation and all your desire, ever and anon giving vent
to this its Christ-sent breathing- “Whom have I in heaven but you? and there
is none upon earth that I desire besides you.” Then, be still, trustful,
assured that you are Christ’s, and that where Christ is, there you also will
be.
Let us seek more personal identity with the joy of the Lord in the progress
of His kingdom in the world. What emotion in Christ’s soul was deeper and
superior to every other? What caused Him to long for the garments rolled in
blood, to pant for His baptism of suffering, to press the cold earth of
Gethsemane, to embrace the rude cross of Calvary, and to confront the
serried ranks of His enemies in that fatal hour? Oh, it was this- “Who for
the JOY that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame.” It
was the joy of saving sinners- the joy of ransoming His Church- the joy of
supplanting earth’s sin, and woe, and curse, with the holiness, the
happiness, the of His gospel. Identify yourself- your intellect, your
wealth, your influence, your time- with this joy of your Lord! Then shall
Christ’s joy be fulfilled in you.
Oh, hallowed and ecstatic the joy of saving a soul from death- of reclaiming
a wanderer to the fold- of planting a jewel in Christ’s crown! How touching
the picture of Christ’s joy- “And when he has found it, he lays it on his
shoulder, REJOICING. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends
and neighbors, saying unto them, REJOICE with me: for I have found my sheep
that was lost.” Be this, beloved reader, your joy, then, indeed, will you
now enter into the joy of your Lord- the joy of saving one soul! It will
give to your life a brighter sunshine- to your death a more hallowed memory-
it will heighten the glory and sweeten the music of heaven.
Remember that Christ’s joy and your joy are one- His joy is fulfilled in
you, and your joy flows from Him- and this brings Christ and you into the
closest sympathy. You belong to Christ, and therefore Christ admits you to a
partnership in His own joy. He shares it with you. He takes your sorrow, and
gives you His joy; and thus you become mighty, yes, almighty in your
weakness, because “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” This reciprocity
of joy should deepen the realization of your being Christ’s. And if you are
Christ’s He will guard and increase your joy, and will share and lessen your
sorrow, and you shall dwell in safety by Him--“because you belong to
Christ.”
Live much in anticipation of the fulness of joy that awaits you in heaven.
If our present is blended with sighing and weeping, with toil and
temptation, with the sword and the cross, our future will be a pure, simple,
unmixed joy, truly and emphatically “a joy Unspeakable and Full of Glory.”
And if now the joy of the Lord in your soul is at times so overpowering as
to compel you to exclaim, “Lord, stay Your hand, or enlarge my capacity,”
oh, what will be the Fulness of Joy That Is at His Right Hand, and the
Pleasures That Are Forever More? Blessed Jesus! You are my joy now--and to
see You then, will be joy, full, perfected, and eternal. Until then, keep me
very near Your side--You my joy, my hope, my all! “The beloved of the Lord
shall dwell in safety by him; and the Lord shall cover him all the day
long.”
Since I belong
to You, my Savior-God,
All must be well, however rough my
road;
However dark my way or prospects be,
All, all is right, since overruled by
Thee.
Safely in You shall Your beloved
dwell,
Though storms may rage, and angry
tempests swell;
All the day long, their covering You
shall be,
What then can harm those, Lord, kept
by Thee?
Feeblest of
all Your flock, You know me, Lord,
Helpless and weak, I stay upon Your
Word;
In all my weakness, this is still my
plea—
That You are mine, and I belong to
Thee.
Then come
whatever may, I am secure;
Your love unchanged shall to the end
endure,
Frail though I am, Your everlasting
arm
Shall shield Your child from every
breath of harm.
Your loving
eye shall guide wherever I roam;
Your Holy Spirit lead me to my home.
You will not let Your feeble frail
one stray,
Though dark temptations often may
crowd my way.
In sorrow’s
saddest hour, Your strength my stay;
My darkest night, Lord, You can turn
to day.
The most loved here may sometimes
changeful be
You change not—and I belong to Thee.
Then may the life, which now on earth
I live,
Be spent for Him, who His for me did
give.
Oh! make me, Lord, in all I will and
do,
Ever to keep Your glory in my view.
And when my
course is run, and fought the fight,
Life’s struggles over, and faith is
changed to sight,
Then all triumphant I shall ever be,
Safe in Your Home, for I belong to
Thee.
“‘Fulness of
joy’ with all Your ransomed there,
In Your loved presence I shall ever
share;
With them I’ll sing the love that
made us free,
The grace that taught us we belonged
to Thee.”