4. True joy cannot be imitated. The world's gaiety is the effect of temperament and circumstances, not of reflection; it repudiates and shrinks from thought. Christian joy deepens the more thoughtful men become. The grounds on which it rests are felt to be the surer the more they are examined. Let us look at one or two more of the characteristics of Christian joy. 1. It does not avoid contact with men, but it can, if need be, live alone. It can flourish in the heart that is alone with itself and with God, and can find its food in meditation and prayer. It blossoms where other joys fade. 2. It is devout. It loves the places where its Author is worshipped, but it can sing its praises everywhere. The heart in which it resides is a temple. It sings even in the midst of cares and tribulations, like Paul and Silas in the midnight gloom of the prison at Philippi. 3. It is at the furthest remove from frivolity. It rejoices in serious things, even in such serious things as sorrow and death. It looks up and on with hope. It rests in God. It knows that Christ, its Source, can never be separated from it. It thinks itself rich enough in the possession of God's great love. 4. It triumphs over the hindrances by which all other joy is thwarted. As to remembrances of the past, all that needed to be forgiven _is_ forgiven. As to actual trouble, it can take hold of God. As to forecasts of the future, _that_, in its truest blessedness, is secure. Who would not be a Christian? And who, being a Christian, can refuse to be glad? Eternal Source of Life and Light, From whom my every blessing flows, How shall my lips extol aright The bounty that no measure knows? Sweet are the gifts Thou dost accord; Still best when best we love Thy ways: But one yet add, all bounteous Lord, And teach me as I would to praise. To praise Thee ofttimes with my tongue; To praise Thee ever with my heart; And soon, where heavenly praise is sung, Oh, let me take my blissful part! Then, Lord, not one of all the host That hymn Thy glory round the Throne, How e'er exalted there, shall boast A strain more fervent than mine own. XIII. _SICKNESS._ "Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick."--John xi. 4. Much contact with sickness of late has set me thinking about it; about the place it occupies in the Divine dispensations of our life, and the lessons it may teach. The subject will find an easy entrance into our meditations. Most of us have known what sickness is, and all of us have in prospect that which will prove to be our last. In all the sorrow that affects the people of God there is more or less of mystery, which deepens in proportion as those who suffer become mature in their Christian life, and advanced in holiness. Yet there are some obvious truths in relation to it which are not hard to discern, and to some of these it will be profitable to turn our thoughts now.