A true believer is privileged with joy in the Holy Ghost. It is a joy that ravisheth the heart and is a foretaste of heaven, a joy that is better felt than expressed. “In whom though now ye see Him not, yet believing ye rejoice, with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Pet. 1:8). Some censure religion, as if it were perpetually attended with mopish pensiveness, and every precious soul were a demoniac possessed with a melancholy devil. Oh, but the practice of religion is full of joy and sweetness (Prov. 3:17). It brings a sedate serenity, a composed quietness, a calm tranquility into the mind, conscience and affections. The godly have God’s Spirit, and spiritual joy is one fruit of God’s Spirit (Gal. 5:22). They are Christ’s subjects, and joy is one great privilege of Christ’s spiritual kingdom (Rom. 14:17). They have an interest in God, and therefore rejoice in Him as their own portion. They are often drawing near to God in His ordinances, and God doth not love to send them away sad. Though they have not an actual possession of glory, yet they have a well-grounded hope of it, and therefore rejoice (Rom. 5:2).
I grant, God often brings His children by way of a weeping cross. They are the mourners in Zion. “Her eyes are like the fish-pools of Heshbon” (Cant. 7:4). The cheeks of the godly are often all afloat, and their eyes as it were glazed over with tears. Oh but in the midst of their greatest sorrows, their tears are mixed with some hopes. In their heaviness there is a mixture of joy. Their right to joy still remains, and though they meet with many rubs in the way to heaven, though the feeling of joy may be suspended for a season, yet are they not always sad, but sometimes taste how gracious and sweet God in Christ is. God will come at last to them. “Ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you” (John 16:22). Yes, they have the highest feeling of joy, who have tasted the bitterness of sorrow (Isa. 57:18). Unutterable groans make way for unspeakable joys. Was not David the greatest mourner in Israel, and yet the sweetest singer in Zion?

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