| The Ministry of Comfort |
Chapter 16 |
Page 4 |
The wretched discontent which makes some people so miserable themselves and such destroyers of happiness in others is only the natural result of the habit of discontent yielded to and indulged through years. Any one, who is conscious of such an unlovely, un-Christlike disposition, should be so ashamed of it that he will set about at once conquering it and transforming his gloomy spirit into one of happiness and joyousness.
Let no one think of happiness as nothing more than a desirable quality, a mere ornamental grace, which is winsome, but is not an essential element in a Christian life, something which one may have or may not have, as it chances. Happiness is a duty, quite as much a duty as truthfulness, honesty, or good temper. There are many Scripture words which exhort us to rejoice. Jesus was a rejoicing man. Although a “man of sorrows,” the deep undertone of His life, never once failing, was gladness. Joy is set down as one of the fruits of the Spirit, a fruit which should be found on every branch of the great Vine. St. Paul exhorted his friends to rejoice in the Lord. There are almost countless incitements to gladness. We are to live a songful life. There are in the Scriptures many more calls to praise than to prayer.
But how are we to get this habit of happiness into our life? The answer is very simple – just as we get any other habit wrought into our life. There are some people to whom the lesson does not seem hard, for they are naturally cheerful. There are others who seem to be predisposed to unhappiness and who find it difficult to train themselves into joyful mood. But there is no Christian who cannot learn the lesson. The very purpose of divine grace is to make us over again, to give us a new heart. A man who has formed the habit of untruthfulness and then becomes a Christian may not say that he never can learn now to be truthful – that untruthfulness is fixed too obdurately in his being. No evil can be so stained into the soul’s texture that grace cannot wash it white. The love of Christ in one makes him a new man, and whatsoever the old is, it must give way. So, though we have allowed ourselves to drift into a habit of gloom and sadness there is no reason why we should not get our heart attuned to a different key and learn to sing new songs. This is our duty, and whatever is our duty we can do by the help of Christ.
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