liar treasure of kings, and of the provinces. I gat me men-singers and women-singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun," Eccles. ii. 3—11. The testimony of one so distinguished for his comprehensive views of men and things, his profound wisdom, and long experience, is important, and clearly proves the incapability of earthly pleasures, and worldly magnificence to satisfy the soul. The joy of religion is real. By the term real you might infer that there is a feigned or counterfeit joy, and if so, your inference is correct, All is not gold that glitters. The real and the artificial are alike only in appearance, but the semblance and the reality are distinct things. Worldlings and hypocrites may make an ostentatious parade of their happiness and buoyancy of spirit, indulge in bursts of laughter, and emotions of delight, but it is only superficial and momentary. "The triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment." That people are generally in pursuit of happiness, is a truth which will be readily admitted; but in many instances that search for bliss is in the wrong direction; a fact which accounts for the consequent disappointments and blighted hopes of numbers who are engaged in such a pursuit. The miser is apparently elated with joy as he heaps up the coin of the realm; brass, silver, and gold constitute the trinity he adores; but when the thought strikes him that the precious ore will shortly elude his tenacious grasp, and fall into other hands, his mind is sorely grieved, and he becomes feverish and agitated at the idea of such a deprivation. "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!" Luke xviii. 24. The man of pleasure and fashion revels in all the gay scenes and worldly amusements his circumstances will allow, but frequently sadness of countenance and heaviness of spirit succeed. The profane sceptic, and unblushing infidel, while ridiculing the pious, and indulging a spirit of unbelief, may boast of their enjoyments, but inwardly they have no sacred and permanent joy. "Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness," Prov. xiv. 13. Jonah was highly delighted with the gourd which shed a refreshing shade over him, but it was of short duration. "For God prepared a worm in the morning, and it smote the gourd, and it withered." Earthly joy is carnal, unsatisfying, and fleeting. But how different is the joy of the christian. It is spiritual, satisfying, and perpetual. It elevates, refines, and satiates. It emanates from a spiritual source, proceeds from a pure fountain, comes down to a believing heart unadulterated, and is associated with an experimental knowledge of our interest in Christ. "Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning," Jam. i. 17. The christian has no taste for carnal joy, nor is he attracted by the siren notes of sensual pleasure: these things are beneath his notice. His joy is spiritual in its nature, and is of instrinsic value. "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost," Rom. xiv. 17. It is, 2. Perpetual. Not like the sunshine on the mountain tops, or the colours of the rainbow, which soon disap pear. It does not pass away as a morning cloud, or like the early dew. "Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice all the day and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted." Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice." 'Rejoice evermore." From this you must not infer that the christian is required to remain indifferent and insensible to every reverse emotion, as though he were destitute of affection and sympathy; for he must "rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep." Listen to the language of the apostle Paul, amidst severe tribulations : "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." True, there are seasons of sadness and weeping, which the most joyful saint may experience during his sojourn on earth, and which state of mind is more consistent and uniform with his profession than to be otherwise; but that does not destroy or diminish the joy of his soul. The sun may be obscured by a passing cloud, and its splendour eclipsed by the intervention of other bodies; but it retains its glory unchanged, its lustre undiminished. So with the christian: there may be an occasional obscuration of his joy, but still it exists in the depths of his heart. It no more demolishes it than weeping over impenitent sinners, mourning over the loss of the first-born, or an affectionate parent, annihilates religion, or obliterates the recollection of the past. There is a deeply fixed joy in the bosom which no outward occurrences or touching circumstances can remove, so long as the heart is right with God. Deep waters cannot drown it, fires of persecution cannot consume it, the blast of adversity cannot wither it, age cannot enfeeble it, a stranger cannot intermeddle with it, demons can E not deprive us of it, nor death destroy it. Sadness was observed on the countenance of the pious Nehemiah, and Artaxerxes enquired the cause thereof: "Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart." He answered, "Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire,” Neh. ii. 2, 3. The pious Jews, when carried captive into Babylon, wept on the banks of the rivers, and hung their harps on the willows, when they remembered Jerusalem. Jeremiah sighed over the wickedness and peril of his countrymen, and in plaintive accents exclaimed, "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!" So did the Saviour weep over Jerusalem, and at the grave of his friend Lazarus. Such emotions, however, do not supplant religious joy, nor are we at all times to dismiss them from our bosoms. While earthly joy is inconstant, and incapable of supporting its advocates in declining health, in the day of trouble, and in the hour of death, the christian can say with the prophet Habakkuk, "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Joy in all seasons-summer, winter, health, sickness, prosperity, and adversity; joy in all places-at home, when abroad, on the sea and in the desert, in the closet and in the sanctuary, in solitude and in company, in the dungeon and at the fagot, in life and in death. We cannot but admire the intrepidity of the apostle Paul, when I he said, "None of these things move me, neither count life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy," Acts xx. 24. my "Should fate command me to the farthest verge It is, In the void waste as in the city full; And where he vital breathes there must be joy." 3. Unspeakable and full of glory. "Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory," 1 Pet. i. 8. It cannot be fully expressed. Thought cannot conceive it; language fails to explain it; the terms of speech are too feeble for the subject. It is unspeakably precious, and unspeakably full. "And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full," 1 John i. 4. Religion imparts to its recipients the most refined, pure, and unaffected joy. "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.' It is "full of glory." "Its blessedness reaches beyond the present world, it reaches the world of glory: and this can never be described. Paul was caught up thither; but what he saw and heard was unspeakable. However vast the capabilities of the human mind, or high its soarings, or lofty its flights, or towering its imaginative powit is still in wandering mazes lost.' It is full of all that is exquisitely beautiful, and blissfully glorious." ers, It is "exceeding joy." The apostle Peter, when comforting believers in their persecutions, addresses them thus: "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some |