Acts, feelings, thoughts, conditions, qualities. The good, the pure, are the superlatively happy. However men may argumentatively deny or qualify this, humanity instinctively knows it to be true. We look almost in vain for any expressions of sorrow in the words of Jesus. In sin, and in the struggle against sin, there is unrest and affliction, but in the perfection of Truth, in the path of Righteousness, there is abiding joy.
Tribulation lasts only so long as there remains some chaff of self which needs to be removed.
Seek the highest Good, and as you find it, as you practise it and realise it, you will taste the deepest, sweetest joy. As you succeed in forgetting your own selfish desires in your thoughtfulness for others, in your care for others, in your service for others, just so far and no further will you find and realise the abiding joy in life. Inside the gateway of unselfishness lies the elysium of Abiding Joy, and whosoever will may enter in, whosoever doubts let him come and see.