Faith, the great executive principle of the Christian, is a far different thing from a mere assent to creeds and formulas. It is a _power_, a _mighty power_, quickened in the Christian by the Holy Spirit--a power which moves the will, and controls the lusts, and overcomes the world. Ask yourself, Do you know aught of such a power? Have you felt its workings in your soul? Has grace subdued your passions and fixed your purposes? Has it abased your pride and relaxed your covetousness? Has it worked in you mightily? If not, then has the kingdom of God come to you in word only, not in power. Again, the sun's going forth is a _joyous_ progress. Nothing is more suggestive of joy than the sun shining. His very face is the synonym of gladness. Nature smiles beneath his rays. Lambs skip on the hill-sides, the birds sing gayly, the forests clap their hands. Fit emblem is the sun's going forth of the healthy development of a Christian life. Gloom and grace are not twin sisters. Joy is a prominent element in genuine experimental religion. "The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace." "Let the righteous be glad," says David; "let them rejoice before God. Yea, let them exceedingly rejoice." "Rejoice in the Lord always;" "rejoice evermore," is the sentiment of the apostle Paul. The want of this holy joy in your experience is no evidence of your deep piety. Rather is it a proof of a low and imperfect life--a defective faith. Surely it is the Christian, above all others, who should dwell in peace. It is he who can cherish in his bosom a felt sense of God's favor, which is life, and of his loving-kindness, which is better than life. It is he whose soul should walk all day in the light of God's countenance. But let not this Christian joy be confounded with the boisterous merriment of the ungodly. It is far, very far removed from the mere pleasures of sense. It is not to be sought for in the butterflies of fashion flitting in saloons of gayety, nor in the hoarse laugh of the midnight bacchanalian revel. It is not the silly trifling of brainless fools, who are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. But it is the calm, the tranquil joy of the soul at peace with God. Like the joyous sun should the Christian go forth, bright and peaceful, exhibiting in his life that steady hope and cheerful confidence and benignant peace which are as wide apart from the levity and thoughtlessness of the world as they are from the austere gloom of the cloister and the repulsive asceticism of the convent. Yours is the duty to exhibit to the world a joyous service to your Lord and Saviour. Yours is the privilege to show to your fellow-men that you have found happiness elsewhere than in folly and dissipation, and that there are other pleasures within your reach than the pleasures of sin, which are for a season.