Joy and Power: Three Messages with One MeaningVan Dyke, Henry
Religion
Joy and Power: Three Messages with One Meaning
Van Dyke, Henry
Spiritual life -- Christianity
Suppose that a fresh flood of energy, brave, cheerful, joyous energy,
should be poured into all the forms of Christian work. Suppose that
Foreign Missions and Home Missions should no longer have to plead and
beg for support, but that plenty of money should come flowing in to send
out every missionary that wants to go, and that plenty of the strongest
and best young men should dedicate their lives to the ministry of
Christ, and that every household where His gospel is believed should
find its highest honour and its greatest joy in helping to extend His
kingdom.
And then suppose that the Christian life, in its daily manifestation,
should come to be marked and known by simplicity and happiness. Suppose
that the followers of Jesus should really escape from bondage to the
evil spirits of avarice and luxury which infect and torment so much of
our complicated, tangled, artificial, modern life. Suppose that instead
of increasing their wants and their desires, instead of loading
themselves down on life's journey with so many bags and parcels and
boxes of superfluous luggage and bric-a-brac that they are forced to sit
down by the roadside and gasp for breath, instead of wearing themselves
out in the dusty ways of ostentation and vain show or embittering their
hearts because they can not succeed in getting into the weary race of
wealth and fashion,--suppose instead of all this, they should turn to
quiet ways, lowly pleasures, pure and simple joys, "plain living and
high thinking." Suppose they should truly find and show their happiness
in the knowledge that God loves them and Christ died for them and heaven
is sure, and so set their hearts free to rejoice in life's common
mercies, the light of the sun, the blue of the sky, the splendour of the
sea, the peace of the everlasting hills, the song of birds, the
sweetness of flowers, the wholesome savour of good food, the delights of
action and motion, the refreshment of sleep, the charm of music, the
blessings of human love and friendship,--rejoice in all these without
fear or misgiving, because they come from God and because Christ has
sanctified them all by His presence and touch.
Suppose, I say, that such a revival of the joy of living in Christ and
working for Christ should silently sweep over the Church in the
Twentieth Century. What would happen? Great would be the peace of her
children. Greater still would be their power.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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