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 another prophecy in this same book of Isaiah: 'Ho, every
one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters'; that was the voice of the
Christ in prophecy. There is a saying spoken in the temple courts: 'If
any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink'; that was the voice of
the Christ upon earth. There is a saying at the end of
Scripture--almost the last words that the Seer in Patmos heard:
'Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely'; that was
the voice of the Christ from the throne. And the triple invitation
comes to every soul of man in the world, and to thee, and thee, and
thee, my brother. Answer, answer as the Samaritan woman did: 'Sir, give
me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither' any more to draw
of the broken cisterns.
THE HARVEST OF A GODLESS LIFE
'Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not
been mindful of the Rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant
pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips: In the day shalt
thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy
seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief
and of desperate sorrow.'--ISAIAH xvii. 10, 11.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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