Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-05-23
THE STRENGTH OF JOY AND THE
WEAKNESS OE JOYLESSNESS
nx BISHOP W. A. CANDLHR.

In the book of Nehemiah there is
found a most instructive exhortauon
made to the returned exiles of Israel
when they wept at the reading of the
law so long unheard in the days of
their captivity in Babylonia. To the
weeping multitude were these words
spoken. Mourn not. nor weep neither
be We sorry; for the JOY of the Lord.
is your strength" To us, as TO them,
the words bring the important lesson
that a joyous religion is strong re-
ligion and joyless faith is weak
faith.
The Joy which gives strength Is called
"the joy Of the Lord. by which is meant
Joy that is derived from fellowship
with God. 1t is a God-given gladness,
found only in communion with the heav-
emily Father. 1t is the importation to
human souls Of something of the JOY OF
God Himself. Our God is no morose
divinity.
In nothing did the ancient faith of
Israel differ more widely from the re-
lgions of the heather nations than in
the glad God who was revealed in it.
Moloch was a terror, and the worship
of Moloch was, a sambre thing. Baal-
ism also was a gloomy cult But the
faith of the Hebrews was a glad faith,
and their feasts were joyous celebra-
lions.
Christianity, which succeeded and full
filled Judaism. sounds the same jubi-
liant note. AT the birth of Christ glad
angels came singing, "Glory to God In
the highest, and on earth peace, good
will toward men" And. although He
was "a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief" yet He claimed for Him
self joy which grief could not quench
nor sorrow displace. On the night be-
fore He died. when the agonies of the
cross were at hand, He was concerned
that his followers should be sharers OF
His joy. and said unto them, These
things have I spoken unto you, that
my Joy might remain in you, and that
your joy might be full" John XIV: I'D.
And again He said to them, ASK, and
y.e shall receive, that your joy may be
full" John xvi:2D. In his high-priestly
prayer which followed his parting words
to his disciples He said to the Father,
"And now come I to thee; and these
things / speak In the world that they
might have my Joy fulfilled in them"
(John vxii13).
In answer to His intercessions, and in
communion with His own Joyous spirit,
the primitive christians were a joy-filled
company. So glad were they on the day
of Pentecost that some misguided men
said Of them that they were full of
new wine" (Acts ii:13). In the midst of
their most bitter prosecutions subse-
quently II is recorded of them, THE
disciples were filled with joy, and with
the Holy Ghost" Indeed, their Master
had prepared beforehand that they
should know Joy in persecution; for in
the Sermon on the Mount He had said,
Blessed are We, when men shall revile
you, and persecute you, and shall say
all manner of eve against you falsely,
for my sake. Rejyice. and be exceeding
glad; for great is Four reward in heaven;
for so prosecuted they the prophets which
were before you." Matthew VII and I'D
1t is evident that this "joy of the
Lord, which is Set forth in both the
Hebrew and the Christian Scriptures, is
something quite ahpve the level of fieshly
pleasures and earthly qualifications. 1t
is not the low joy that men may share
with animals, but the supernatural JOY
which they derive from God. There is
shallow saying which is very prevalent
among some, and which runs on this
WISE "I do not like a long-faced reli-
gion I believe in christians being hap
py". The mere form Of the words is
quite in keeping with the Scriptures; but
the meaning evidently intended to be
conveyed by them is quite opposed to the
whole tenor of Scripture with regard to
the essence of christian joy. The people
who talk in this fashion really demand
q convivial christianity, In which every.
sense shall be made to thrill with earthly
pleasures. They do not like "a long
faced christianity, but they do like what
is far worse, namely, a monkey-faced
christianity with a countenance covered
with the grimaces of mere animal merri-
ment Such a degenerate gladness bears
no more relation to the genuine joy Of
goodness than the artificial lights of the
ballroom or the play house bear to the
glorious beams Of the morning in the
glad spring1tinne. In the joy Of the
world there is no strength, but it is
rather a source OF weakness. The pur-
suit OF such Joy has always and every
where led men and women into a weak,
peevish, restless sort of life, whining over
ever small disappointment, and incapable
of devoting themselves heroically to any
high service. 1t produces what has been
called race suicide" in order that 1t may
not be interrupted by the cares OF parent
hood, and then IN old age, when its ca
pacity for convivialty and folly has fall
ed, 1t Is filled with gloom because 1t
knows nothing of the blessedness of be-
ing loved and cherished by devoted chill
dren. 1t squanders upon its lusts great
sums, which might bring sight to the
blind, strength to the lame, ears to the
deaf, and every sort of good to the
needy, and then it complains that it