Finally, no human being need be without a sharer of his joy: and that is a great consideration, for joy unshared quickly dies, and is from the beginning haunted by a vague sense of a shadow that is falling upon it. In the heart of the Eternal dwells eternal joy. All loveliness, all sweetness, all goodness, all truth, are the objects of His happy contemplation; therefore every really joyful heart has an immediate sympathiser in God; and prayer is quite as much the means by which we share our gladness as the vehicle by which we convey our sorrows to the Divine heart. Is it not beautiful to think of all those timid and retiring human spirits, who cherish sweet ecstasies, and feel glowing exultations, and are frequently caught up in heavenly raptures, which the shy countenance and stammering tongue never could record? They feel their hearts melt with joy in the prospect of broad skies and sunlit fields, in the sound of morning birds and rushing streams; they hear great choirs of happy spirits chanting perpetually in heaven and in earth, and on every side of their obscure way open vistas of inspired vision. No stranger meddles with their joy, or even knows of it. God is not a stranger; to Him they tell it all, with Him they share it, and their joy is part of the joy of the Eternal. FOOTNOTES: [408] Prov. xiii. 19. [409] Prov. xiii. 12. [410] Prov. xiii. 12. [411] Prov. xvii. 22. [412] Prov. xviii. 14. [413] Prov. xiv. 13. [414] Prov. xv. 13. [415] Prov. xv. 15_b_. [416] Prov. xvii. 22. [417] Prov. xv. 15. [418] Prov. xv. 30. [419] Prov. xxiv. 12, marginal reading. [420] Prov. xx. 12. [421] Prov. xv. 3. [422] Prov. xv. 11. [423] Prov. xvi. 2, rep. xxi. 2. [424] Prov. xx. 27. [425] Prov. xx. 24. [426] Prov. xii. 5. [427] Prov. xix. 22. [428] Prov. xvii. 3. [429] Prov. xx. 9. [430] Prov. xvi. 4. This strange saying, interpreted in the light of the Gospel, cannot mean that wicked people are actually made in order to exhibit the righteousness and judgment of God in their punishment on the day of wrath, though that was probably the thought in the mind of the writer. But it reminds us of the truth that every human being is a direct concern of the Maker, who has His own wise purpose to fulfil in even the most inconsiderable and apparently abortive life. XV. _A PASSIONATE DISPOSITION._ "A soft answer turneth away wrath: but a grievous word stirreth up anger." In the LXX. there is another clause inserted at the beginning, Ὀργὴ ἀπόλλυσι καὶ φρονίμους, ἀπόκρισις δὲ ὑποπίπτουσα ἀποστρέφει θυμόν, λόγος δὲ λυπηρὸς ἐγείρει ὀργάς."--PROV. xv. 1. "A meek tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breaking of the spirit."--PROV. xv. 4. "A wrathful man stirreth up contention: but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife."--PROV. xv. 18.