Rejoice Evermore
(No. 1900)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, MAY 23, 1886,
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Rejoice evermore." 1 Thessalonians 5:16.
THIS is a sunny precept. When we read it, we feel that the time of the
singing of birds has come. That joy should be made a duty is a sure
token of the blessedness of the New Covenant. Because Jesus has
suffered, we are encouraged, commanded and enabled to rejoice. Only the
Man of Sorrows and His chosen Apostles can teach for a precept such a
word as this–"Rejoice evermore" Happy people who can be thus exhorted!
We ought to rejoice that there is a command to rejoice! Glory be unto
the God of happiness who bids His children be happy. While musing on
this text, I seem carried in spirit to the green woods and their
bowers. As in a dell, all blue with flowers, where the sun smiles down
upon me through the half-born oak leaves, I sit down and hear the
blessed birds of the air piping out their love-notes–their music says
only this–"Rejoice evermore." All that I see, and hear, and feel
surrounds me with garlands of delight, while the fairest of all the
shepherds of Sharon sings to me this delicious pastoral–"Rejoice
evermore" The very words have breathed spring into my soul and set my
heart blossoming! Thus am I also made to be as a daffodil which long
has hidden away among the clods, but now, at last, ventures to lift up
her yellow lily and ring out her golden bell. Who can be sad, or
silent, when the voice of the Beloved says, "Rejoice evermore"!
Our Apostle speaks of rejoicing as a personal, present, permanent duty
to be always carried out by the people of God. The Lord has not left it
to our own option whether we will sorrow or rejoice, but He has pinned
us down to it by positive injunction–"Rejoice evermore." He will have
this cloth of gold spread over the whole field of life. He has laid
down as first and last, beginning, middle and end–"Rejoice evermore."
Some things are to be done at one time, some at another, but rejoicing
is for all times, forever and forevermore, which, I suppose, is more
than ever, if more can be! Fill life's sea with joy up to the high
water mark. Spare not, stint not, when rejoicing is the order of the
day. Run out to your fall tether, sweep your largest circle when you
use the golden compasses of joy!
Some things being once done are done with and you need not further
meddle with them; but you have never done with rejoicing. "Rejoice
evermore."
Our text is set in the midst of many precepts. Notice how from the 14th
verse, the Apostle packs together a number of duties of Christian
ministers and Church members–one towards another. "We exhort you,
Brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support
the weak, be patient toward all men." All these things are to be done
in turn, according as occasion requires, but, "rejoice evermore." You
have plenty to do, but this thing you have always to do. You shall
never be able to fold your hands for lack of some holy task or other,
but be not worried–be not fretted by what you have to do–on the
contrary, take up the sacred duties with alacrity, welcoming each one
of them and entering upon them with delight! Rejoice in each one,
because you "rejoice evermore." You will have to warn the unruly and
their rebellious tempers will, perhaps, irritate you. Or, if in
patience you possess your soul, yet you may grow sad at having so
melancholy a duty to perform, but be not troubled, even by the grief of
injured love. Warn the unruly, but "rejoice evermore."
Do not pause in the blessed service of rejoicing when you are called
upon to comfort the feeble-minded. There is a danger that the
feeble-minded may rob you of your comfort, but let it not be so. In
attempting to lift them out of the waters you may, perhaps, be almost
drowned, yourself–your deliverance will lie in the sweet words,
"Rejoice evermore." You will lose your power both to warn the unruly
and to comfort the feeble-minded if you lose your joy. The joy of the
Lord will be your strength in all these matters. Therefore, "rejoice
evermore." Close at your hand will lie the weak who
need supporting and you may be half saying to yourselves, "We wish that
all God's people were strong, that we might unitedly spend all our
strength against the foe instead of having to use it at home for
supporting our own weak soldiers." But be not dejected on that
account–while you are supporting the weak, still, "rejoice evermore."
Your rejoicing will be a great support to the faint–your ceasing to
rejoice will be a terrible confirmation of their sorrow! Lend the
feeble a hand, but do not stop your own singing! Does not a mother
carry her baby and sing at the same time?
As you turn about, you find all men gathering to hinder you, to grieve
you, to slander you, or to make use of you for their base purposes. But
be not grieved. Put up with your poor fellow creatures since the Lord
puts up with you, but do not leave off rejoicing! As you are patient
towards all men, let your patience have a flavor of joy in it. However
great the provocations that you endure, still, "rejoice evermore." As
it is written, "With all your sacrifices you shall offer salt," so let
it be your settled purpose with every other duty to offer rejoicing. I
am sure, Brothers, that we make a very great mistake if we get like
Martha–cumbered with much serving–for that cumbering prevents our
serving our Master well. He loves to see those who serve in His house
of a cheerful countenance. He wants not slaves to Grace His Throne. He
would have His children wait upon Him with a light in their faces which
is the reflection of His own! He would have His joy fulfilled in them,
that their joy may be full. It is His royal pleasure that His service
should be delight, His worship, Heaven, His Presence, Glory! Let your
hearts be sanctified, but let not your hearts be troubled. Amidst a
thousand duties give not way to a single anxiety! While you are
desirous to honor God in everything, yet be not overburdened, even,
with the cares of His cause and service, lest you put forth the hand of
Uzzah to stay the Ark of the Lord. The Lord forbade His priests to wear
garments that caused sweat and He will not have any of us fret and
worry about His cause so as to lose our rest in Himself. Wrestle for a
blessing, but still "rejoice evermore."
The command to rejoice is set in the midst of duties–it is put there
to teach us how to perform them all.
Also notice that our text comes just after a flavoring of trouble and
bitterness. Read verse 15–"See that none render evil for evil unto any
man." Children of God are apt to have evil rendered to them. They may
have slanderous reports spread about them. They may be accused of
things they never dreamed of. They may be cut to the heart by the
ingratitude of those who ought to have been their friends, but still
they are bid, "rejoice evermore." Even rejoice in the persecution and
in the slander! "Blessed are you when men shall revile you, and
persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely,
for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward
in Heaven: for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you."
So says our Lord. "Rejoice," He says, "and be exceedingly glad."
There is an expression in the Greek that never has been rendered into
English, and never will be–agalliasthe. Old Trapp half puns upon the
agalliasthe as he says, "dance a galliard." I do not know what a
"galliard" was, but I suppose that it was some very joyous kind of
dance. Certainly we know of no better way of translating our Lord's
word than by–exult, or leap for joy. Even when your good name shall be
tarnished by the malice of the wicked, then you are to leap for joy!
When are you to be wretched? Surely despondency is excluded. If slander
is to make us dance, when are we to fret? Suppose some other kind of
trial should come upon you? You are still to rejoice in the Lord
always. The dearest friend is dead–"rejoice evermore." The sweet babe
is sickening, the darling of your household will be taken away–
"rejoice evermore." Trade is ebbing out, prosperity is disappearing
from you–you may even be brought to poverty– but, "rejoice evermore."
Your health is affected, your lungs are weak, your heart does not beat
with regularity, very soon you may be sick unto death, but, "rejoice
evermore." Shortly you must put off this tabernacle altogether! Tokens
warn you that you must soon close your eyes in death, but, "rejoice
evermore." There is no limit to the exhortation! It is always in
season! Through fire and through water, through life and through death,
"rejoice evermore."
Now and then a commentator says that the command of our text must mean
that we are to be in the habit of rejoicing, for there must necessarily
be intervals in which we do not rejoice. It is to be "constant but
intermittent." so one good man says. I do not know how that can be,
though I know what he means. He means that it ought to be the general
tenor of our life that we rejoice, yet he evidently feels that there
must be black clouds, now and then, to vary the abiding sunshine. He
warns us that there will be broken bits of road where as yet the steam
roller has not forced in the granite. But that will not do as an
interpretation of the text, for the Apostle expressly says, "Rejoice
evermore"–that is, rejoice straight on and never leave off rejoicing!
Whatever happens, rejoice! Come what may, rejoice! If the worst darkens
to the worst–if the night lowers into a sevenfold midnight, yet,
"rejoice evermore!" This carillon of celestial bells is to keep on
ringing through the night as well as through the day. "Rejoice,
rejoice, you saints of God at every time, in every place,
and under every circumstance. Joy, joy, forever! Rejoice evermore. In
the midst of a thousand duties, amid the surges of 10,000 trials, still
rejoice." There is to be about the Christian a constancy ofjoy.
I am bound to mention that among the curiosities of the Churches I have
known many deeply spiritual Christian people who have been afraid to
rejoice. Much genuine religion has been "sickened over with the pale
cast of thought!" Some take such a view of religion that it is, to
them, a sacred duty to be gloomy! They believe in the holiness of
discontent, the sanctity of repining–and they recoil from grateful joy
as if it were the devil in the form of an angel of light! One of the
commandments of the saints of misery is, "Draw down the blinds on
Sunday." Another is, "Never smile during a sermon–it is wicked." A
third precept is, "Never rest yourself and be sure that you never let
anybody else rest for an instant. Why should anybody be allowed a
moment's quiet in a world so full of sin? Go through the world and
impress people with the idea that it is an awful thing to live."
I have known some very good people spoiled for practical
usefulness–and spoiled as to being like the Lord Jesus Christ by their
deeply laid conviction that it was wicked to be glad. Well do I
remember an earnest Christian woman who saw me when I was first
converted, full of the joy of the Lord and joyfully assured of my
salvation in Christ Jesus. She seemed distressed at the sight of so
much joy! She shook her head. She looked at me with that
heavenly-minded pity which these good people usually lay by in store.
It seemed to her a dreadful thing that so young a Christian should dare
to know whom he had believed! If you had been a Christian a hundred
years you might, perhaps, begin to think it possible that you were
saved–but to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ straight away like a
little child–and at once to rejoice in His salvation seemed to this
dear old Christian woman to be an act of such shocking temerity that
she could only shake her dear head and prognosticate all sorts of
horrible things!
Since then I have found a great many like she and when I have seen them
shake their heads they have not shaken me half so much as she shook my
heart on that first occasion! I know them, now, and I know that there
is, after all, nothing in that shake of the head. The fact is that they
ought to shake their heads about themselves for getting into so sad a
state while this text stands on the sacred page, "Rejoice evermore." It
cannot be a wise and prudent thing to neglect this plain precept of the
Word of God! It cannot be an unsafe thing to do what we are commanded
to do! It cannot be a wrong thing for a Believer to abide in that state
of mind which is recommended by the Holy Spirit in words so plain and
so unguarded, "Rejoice evermore."
Oh, dear Friends, you may rejoice! God has laid no embargo upon
rejoicing! He puts no restriction upon happiness. Do believe it that
you are permitted to be happy! Do believe that there is no ordinance of
God commanding you to be miserable. Turn this Book over and see if
there is any precept that the Lord has given you in which He has said,
"Groan in the Lord always, and again I say, groan." You may groan if
you like. You have Christian liberty for that, but, at the same time,
do believe that you have larger liberty to rejoice, for so it is put
before you! He bids you rejoice and yet, again, He says "rejoice." Some
of God's sheep dare not go into the Lord's own pasture. It is dark and
thick with rich and luscious food–and into that field their Shepherd
has already led them. Yet they dream that there is a gate and that gate
is shut–and across it is written this word–"Presumption." They are
afraid to feed where God has made the best grass to grow for them
because they are afraid of being presumptuous! The fear is groundless,
but painfully common.
Oh that I could deliver the true Believer from this evil influence! If
you are Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, everything that there is in
Christ is yours! If you are resting in Jesus Christ, though you have
only lately begun to trust in Him, the whole Covenant of Grace with all
its infinite supplies belongs to you and you have the right to partake
of that which Grace has provided! Jesus invites you to eat and drink
abundantly. Beloved in the Lord, the only sin that you can commit at
the banquet of love will be to deny yourselves! The feast is spread by
royal hands–and royal bounty bids you come! Hold not back through
shame or fear! Come and saturate your souls with goodness. "Eat you
that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness," for so
God permits you to do.
But I go a step farther and that is, that it is a sin not to rejoice. I
will not say it harshly–I should like to say it as softly and tenderly
as it could be put–but it must be said and I must not take away from
the force of it by my tenderness. If it is a command, "Rejoice
evermore," then it is a breach of the command not to rejoice evermore!
And what is a breach of a command? What is a neglect to obey a precept?
Is it not a sin–a sin of shortcoming, though not of transgression?
Beloved, why do your faces wear those gloomy colors? Why do you
distrust? Why do you mourn? Why are you continually suspicious of the
faithfulness of God? Why are you not rejoicing when there is God's Word
for it, first permitting,
and then commanding you? Come, you unhappy and dolorous professors,
question yourselves rather than others! O you forlorn one, cease to
judge those whose eyes flash with exultation!
Next time that you meet with a rejoicing Christian, do not begin to
chide him, but quietly chide yourself because you do not rejoice. As
for you who are swift of foot, I hope that you will not say an unkind
word of poor Mephibosheth who is lame in both his feet, for he is dear
to David and he shall sit at David's table. But, on the other hand,
Mephibosheth, in his lameness, must not grow bitter and censorious and
find fault with Asahel who is fleet of foot as a young roe, or
otherwise it may seem almost too ridiculous! No, no, Heavy-Heart, chide
not the glad. Glad-Heart, deal not roughly with the sorrowful! Bear one
another's burdens and share one another's joys! If there is any
chiding, let it be the chiding of Little-Faith, sorrowfully bemoaning
his own weakness of Grace. Oh that God would help us to be faithful to
our own experiences–then we shall not criticize others, but judge
ourselves. All this by way of introduction.
And now, just for a minute or two, I desire to speak upon THE QUALITY
OF THIS REJOICING which is commanded in our text. May the Holy Spirit
enable me to set before you the select taste and special quality of a
Believer's lifelong joy! "Rejoice evermore."
Brothers and Sisters, this is not carnal rejoicing. If it were, it
would be impossible to always keep it up. There is a joy of harvest,
but where shall we find it in winter? There is a joy of wealth, but
where is this joy when riches take to themselves wings and fly away?
There is a joy of health, but that is not always with us, for the evil
days come and the years of weakness and sorrow. There is a joy in
having your children round about you. Sweet are domestic joys, but
these do not last forever. At the house of the happiest, knocks the
hand of death! No, if your joys spring from earthly fountains, those
fountains may be dried up and then your joys are gone. If the
foundation of a man's joy is anywhere on earth, it will be shaken, for
there is a day coming when the whole earth shall shake and even now it
is far from being a stable thing.
Build not on the floods and what are outward circumstances but as waves
of the changeful sea! No, Beloved, it cannot be carnal joy which is
commanded here, since carnal joy in the nature of things cannot be
forevermore. I know not that carnal joy is commanded anywhere. Men are
permitted to rejoice in the things of this life, but that is the most
that we can say. They are forbidden to rejoice too much in these
things, for they are as honey, of which a man may soon eat till he is
sickened. The joy which God commands is a joy in which it is impossible
to go too far. It is a heavenly joy, based upon things which will last
forever, or else we could not be bid to "rejoice evermore."
Again, as this joy is not carnal, so I feel quite sure that it is not
presumptuous. Some persons ought not to rejoice. Did not the Prophet
Hosea say, "Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people, for you
have departed from your God"? There are some persons who rejoice and it
would be well if a faithful hand were to dash the cup from their lips!
They have never fled to Christ for refuge–they have never been born
again–they have never submitted themselves to the righteousness of God
and yet they are at ease in Zion. Ah, wretched ease! Many are ignorant
of their ruin, strangers to the remedy of Grace, strangers to the blood
that bought redemption–and yet they rejoice in their own
righteousness. They have a joy that has been accumulated through years
of false profession, hypocritical formality and vain pretence. Such as
these are not told to "rejoice evermore."
There must be sound reasons for rejoicing, now, or there can be no
reason for rejoicing always. If your joy will not bear looking at, have
done with it! If, when you run with the footmen of common
self-examinations in time of health, they weary you, what will you do
when you contend with the black horsemen of dark thought in the hour of
death? The joy that will abide forever is the joy to be sought after!
But joy which a man cannot justify never ought to be thought of as
enduring "evermore." Is your hope fixed on what Jesus did for sinners
on the Cross? Are you really a partaker of the life that is in Him?
Have you been begotten again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead? If so, it is safe for you to rejoice at
once and it will be equally safe for you to "rejoice evermore!" Is it
not clear that the rejoicing commanded in our text is not a
presumptuous joy, or a carnal joy?
Again, dear Friends, I feel bound to add that it must not be a
fanatical joy. Certain religious people are of a restless, excitable
turn and never feel good till they are half out of their minds. You
would not wonder if their hair should stand bolt upright, like the
quills of the fretful porcupine. They are in such a state of mind that
they cry, "hallelujah," at anything or nothing, for they feel ready to
cry, or shout, or jump, or dance. I do not condemn their delirium, but
I am anxious to know what goes with it? Come here, Friend. Let us have
a talk. What do you know? What? Is it possible that I
offend you the moment I seek a reason for the hope that is in you? Is
it so that you do not know anything of the Doctrines of Grace? You were
never taught anything? The object of the institution which enlisted you
is not to teach you, but only to excite you! It pours boiling water
into you, but it does not feed you with milk. That is a miserable
business!
We like excitement of a proper kind and we covet earnestly a high and
holy joy, but if our rejoicing does not come out of a clear
understanding of the things of God and if there is no Truth of God at
the bottom of it, what does it profit us? Those who rejoice without
knowing why can be driven to despair without knowing why–and such
persons are likely to be found in a lunatic asylum before long. The
religion of Jesus Christ acts upon truthful, reasonable, logical
principles–it is sanctified common sense. A Christian man should only
exhibit a joy which he can justify and of which he can say, "There is
reason for it." I pray you, take care that you have joy which you may
expect to endure forever because there is a good solid reason at the
back of it. The excitement of animal enthusiasm will die out like the
crackling of thorns under a pot–we desire to have a flame burning on
the hearth of our souls which is fed with the fuel of Eternal Truth and
will, therefore, burn on forevermore.
I go a little farther, and I say that I believe that this joy which is
commanded here, "Rejoice evermore," is not even that high and Divine
exhilaration which Christians feel upon special occasions. We could
tell of rapturous ecstasies and sublime joys which, if they are not
Heaven, itself, are so near akin to it that we would not change them
for the place that Gabriel fills when nearest to his Master's Throne!
Oh, there are times when God's Elijah, having brought down the fire
from Heaven, girds up his loins and runs before Ahab's chariot with a
Divine enthusiasm which onlookers cannot understand! There are moments
on the top of the mountain when Peter is no fool for saying, "Let us
build three tabernacles." It is so good to be there that we would
willingly stay on that mountain and never come down again to the
bustle, turmoil and sin of a guilty world!
Now, you are not commanded in the text to be always in such a high,
exalted, rapturous state of mind as that. "Rejoice evermore," but you
cannot always rejoice at that rate! I have said that you cannot and I
mean it literally. There is a physical impossibility in it! The strain
upon the mind would be much too great. We could not live in such a
condition of excitement and tension. Sometimes we can swim in the deep
waters, but who can always swim? We can take to ourselves the wings of
eagles and soar beyond the stars–but we are not condors and cannot
always fly–we are more like the sparrows which find a house near the
altar of God. When we cannot mount as on wings, we think it quite
sufficient if we can run without weariness and walk without fainting.
The ordinary joy of the Christian is that which is commanded here–it
is not the joy of Jubilee but of every year. It is not the joy of
harvest but of all the months. "Rejoice evermore." No, Miriam, no, not
always the timbrel! Not every day, "Sing unto the Lord, for He has
triumphed gloriously." There is other work for you. No, Moses, not
every day, "Your right hand, O Lord, has dashed in pieces the enemy."
No, you have other work to do among these rebels, quite as honoring to
your God and quite as useful as writing Israel's triumphal hymn!
No, James and John and Peter, not always on the top of Tabor. Sometimes
in the house of death with your Master where the young girl is raised.
And sometimes in Gethsemane to keep watch, if you can, while He sweats
great drops of blood. You are to "rejoice evermore," but you are not
always to be clashing the high-sounding cymbals–sometimes the softer
psaltery must satisfy your hand. All days are not holidays. There was a
day when Job lost his cattle and his children and yet blessed the name
of the Lord. All days are not wedding days. There was a day wherein
Jacob cried, "All these things are against me!" All days are not as the
days of Heaven upon earth. And until the day breaks and the shadows
flee away, we shall have to bear about a joy that is rather a lamp in
the night than a sun in the day–a joy that gladdens us when we are
cast down, rather than lifts us up to ecstasy.
I hope that you catch my thought, though I am afraid that I do but
dimly put it. This shows you what kind of joy could not always be with
us. The joy that can always be with us is a part of ourselves–a power
of the new nature which God works in us by His own Spirit. It consists
in the great cheerfulness of the new-born disposition–a full
conviction that whatever God does is right–a sweet agreement with the
Providence of God–let it ordain what it will, an intense delight in
God, Himself, and in the Person of His dear Son. And, consequently, a
quietness, a calm, a stillness of soul, "the peace of God which passes
all understanding." This holy rejoicing is a drop of the essence of
Heaven! You have heard of "songs without words"–such is the joy of the
Lord in the soul–a sort of silent song forever sung within the
spirit. It is a quiet making of music with every pulse of the heart, a
living Psalmody before God with every heaving of the lungs.
I hope that you know what it means, or that if you do not, you may soon
learn. This is a joy that has no wear and tear about it. You can keep,
from year to year, the even tenor of this way, for this is the pace for
which men's minds were made. "Rejoice evermore." You can live to be as
old as Methuselah in this frame, for this rejoicing will never tear you
to pieces. It will conserve you and act as the salt of your physical,
mental, and spiritual man.
Thus much upon the quality of this joy.
Suffer a few words upon THE OBJECT OF THE REJOICING, in order to help
you, dear Friends, to indulge it. "Rejoice evermore." How can we keep
this feast? What are the objects of such a joy as this?
God helping us, we can always rejoice in God. What a God we have! "God,
my exceeding joy," said the Psalmist. "Delight yourself, also, in the
Lord." Every attribute of God, every characteristic of God is an
inexhaustible gold mine of precious joy to every man who is reconciled
to God. Delight yourself in God the Father, His electing love, His
unchanging Grace, His illimitable power, His transcending Glory, in
your being His child and in that Providence with which He orders all
things for you! Delight yourself in your Father God! Delight yourself,
also, in the Son, who is, "God with us." God with us before the earth
was, in the Covenant Council when He became our Surety and our
Representative. God with us when His delights were with the sons of
men. Delight in Him as Man suffering, sympathizing with you. Delight in
Him as God putting forth infinite wisdom and power for you. I would
need a month in which to give a bare outline of the various points of
our Lord's Divine and human Character which furnish us with objects of
joy! Do but think of Him. Do but for a moment consider His love and if
you are at all right in heart, it must bring unspeakable pleasure to
you–
"Jesus, the very thought of You With sweetness fills my breast."
Then think of the Holy Spirit and rejoice in Him as dwelling in you,
quickening you, comforting you, illuminating you, and abiding with you
forever. Think of the Triune God and be blessed.
Then muse upon the Covenant of Grace. Think of redemption by blood.
Think of Divine Sovereignty and all that has come of it in the form of
Grace to men. Think of your effectual calling, your justification, your
acceptance in the Beloved. Think of your final perseverance. Think of
your union with the glorious Person of the Well-Beloved and of all the
life and all the Glory that is wrapped up in that surpassing truth.
"Rejoice evermore." With such a God, you have always a source of joy!
I believe, dear Friends, that if we are right-minded, every doctrine of
the Gospel will make us glad, every promise of the Gospel will make us
glad, every precept of the Gospel will make us glad. It you were to go
over a list of all the privileges that belong to the people of God, you
might pause over each one and say, "I could rejoice always in this if I
had nothing else." If ever you fail to rejoice, permit me to exhort you
to awaken each one of the Graces of the Spirit to its most active
exercise. Begin with the first of them–faith. Believe, and as you
believe this and that out of the 10,000 blessings which God has
promised, joy will spring up in your soul! Have you exercised faith?
Then lead out the sister Grace of hope. Begin hoping for the
resurrection, hoping for the Second Coming, hoping for the glory which
is then to be revealed. What sources of joy are these!
When you have indulged hope, then go on to love and let this fairest of
the heavenly sisters point you to the way of joy. Go on to love God
more and more and to love His people and to love poor sinners. And, as
you love, you will not fail to rejoice, for joy is born of love! Love
has on her left hand sorrow for the griefs of those she loves, but at
her right hand a holy joy in the very fact of loving her fellows, for
he that loves does a joyful thing. If you cannot get joy either out of
hope, or faith, or love, then go on to patience. I believe that one of
the sweetest joys under Heaven comes out of the severest suffering when
patience is brought into play. "Sweet," says Toplady, "to lie passive
in Your hands and know no will but Yours." And it is so sweet, so
inexpressibly sweet, that to my experience the joy that comes of
perfect patience is, under certain aspects, the most Divine of all the
joys that Christians know this side of Heaven. The abyss of agony has a
pearl in it which is not to be found upon the mountain of delight. Put
patience to her perfect work and she will bring you the power to
rejoice evermore.
I will suppose that you have gone through all this and that you still
say, "I cannot rejoice as I would." Then arise, dear Brothers and
Sisters, and gird yourself for holy exercise. Begin with prayer. Prayer
will make the darkening cloud disappear and then you will rejoice. If
supplication is over and you are not rejoicing, then sing a Psalm.
"Bring here the minstrel." Often does holy music set the Prophet going.
Let us sing a song unto the Lord and if we have no joy in our hearts,
already, we shall not have sung very many verses before rejoicing will
drop on us like the dew which soaks the dry and dusky tents of the
Arabians. If neither prayer nor praise will do it, then read the Word.
Sit still and meditate on what the Lord has spoken. Go up to the
Communion Table–gather with the people of God in sweet mutual
converse. Or go out and preach, my Brothers, to sinners! Go to the
Sunday school class, and tell the dear children about Christ. In
Christian labor you will joy in the Lord as you would not have rejoiced
in Him if you had been at home idle.
At any rate, when you do not rejoice, say to yourself, "Come, Heart,
this will not do. Why are you cast down, O my Soul?" I have heard of a
mother that whenever her children began to cry and grow fretty, she
said, "They must have medicine." She was sure that they were not well.
Whenever you begin to fret and worry, say to yourself, "I must take
heavenly medicine, for I am not right. The leaves of the Scriptures are
for my healing–I will use them for my soul's good. If my heart were
right, I would rejoice in the Lord, and as I am not rejoicing I must
resort to the great Physician."
Brothers and Sisters, we must rejoice. Why should we not rejoice, since
all things are ours? Heaven is ours in the future and earth is ours in
the present. With the past and all its sins blotted out, the future and
all its needs provided for by the bounty of an unchanging God, why
should we be sad? If we are not glad, the stars may rebuke us as they
twinkle amid the darkness–the sun may rebuke us for refusing to shine
in the light of God. Come, Brothers and Sisters, let us obey the Word
that says, "Rejoice evermore."
Lastly, somebody will say, "But why should we rejoice?" What are THE
REASONS FOR THIS REJOICING? We ought not to need arguments to persuade
us to be happy! The worldling says that, "he counts it one of the
wisest things to drive dull care away." The child of God may count it
the wisest thing to cast his care upon his God. You do not need an
argument for rejoicing, but if you did, it is found in the command of
your Lord, who says to you, "Rejoice evermore."
Rejoicing wards off temptation. The Christian may be tempted, but
little impression is made upon him by the pleasurable bait if he is
happy in the Lord. There is a passage in Paul–I forget, just now,
where it is–where he speaks of putting on the armor of light. It is
fine poetry as well as solid fact that we wear the armor of light. And
part of the meaning is that we are so surrounded with seraphic joy that
nothing can tempt us. The joy which we wear is far superior to any
which the Evil One can offer us and so his temptation has lost its
power. What can the devil offer the joyous Christian? Why, if he were
to say to him, "I will give you all the kingdoms of the world and the
glory thereof, if you will fall down and worship me," the Believer
would reply to him, "Fiend, I have more than that! I have perfect
contentment! I have absolute delight in God. My soul swims in a deep
sea of bliss as I think of God." The devil will speedily quit such a
man as that, for the joy of the Lord is an armor through which he
cannot send the dagger of his temptation!
This joy of the Lord will shut out worldly mirth from the heart. The
rejoicing Christian is not the kind of man that needs to spend his
evenings in a theater. "Pooh!" he says, "what can I do there?" You say
to the man who has once eaten bread, "I will take you to such a grand
feast. I will show you a company of swine all feeding upon husks. Look
upon them, see how they enjoy themselves! You shall have as much as you
like and be as happy as they are." He says, "But you do not know me!
You do not understand me. I have none of the qualities that link me
with swine! I cannot enjoy the things which they enjoy." He that is
once happy in God pours contempt upon the most sublime happiness that a
worldling can know! It is altogether out of his line. He does not know
their mirth, even as they do not know his rejoicing. I suppose that the
fish of the sea have joys suitable to their natures. I do not envy
them–I am not inclined to dive into their element. It is so with the
children of God–they are not inclined to go after worldly things when
they are happy in the Lord.
But your miserable professors who simply go to a place of worship
because they ought to go, and who are very good because they dare not
be anything else, they have no joy in the Lord! They go to the devil
for their joy–they openly confess that sometimes they must have a bit
of pleasure and, therefore, they go to questionable amusements. No
wonder that they are found in Satan's courts, looking up to him for
delights, since they find no rejoicing in the ways of the Lord!
He that rejoices in the Lord always will be a great encouragement to
his fellow Christians. He comes into the room– you like the very look
of his face. It is a half-holiday to look at him and as soon as he
speaks, he drops a sweet word of
encouragement for the weak and afflicted. We have some Brothers and
Sisters round about us whose faces always refresh me before preaching!
Their words are cheering and strengthening. Those who rejoice in the
Lord evermore cannot help perfuming the room where they are with the
aroma of their joy. Others catch the blessed contagion of their
contentment and become happy, too.
This is the kind of thing that attracts sinners. They used, in the old
times, to catch pigeons and send them out with sweet salves on their
wings–other pigeons followed them into the dovecote for the sake of
their perfume and so were captured. I would that everyone of us had the
heavenly anointing on our wings, the Divine perfumes of peace, joy and
rest! For then others would be fascinated to Jesus, allured to Heaven.
God grant that it may be so, for Jesus' sake! Amen.