Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 edition. Excerpt: ... religion A matter of rejoicing. "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord."--Phil. iii. I. That God wills us to be happy is as certain a truth as anything that can be said about the will of God. All our notions of His will come from three sources: from Natural Theology, that is, from the study of nature as the work of God, the study of this visible world in which we live and of which we form a part; from Conscience, and that spiritual world of emotions and faculties which link us to the divine; and from the Bible, that revelation in history of God's will and of His dealings and purposes with His human children. All these alike tell us that God's will is that man should be happy, that unhappiness is the result of opposing His will, and breaking His laws. Religion, then, ought to be joyous, and the joyousness of a religious man ought to be of a deeper, truer kind than any other, inasmuch as it rests on a real basis; not on momentary gratification but on a deep-seated harmony between his will and God's, and on the absence of that fundamental discord that mars all happiness. He has a more sensitive, more delicate, more spiritual nature, and is therefore capable of more joy; and he is more consciously in the presence of God who is the source and fount of all joy. Further, to be joyous is part of the Christian ideal, and it can scarcely be said to be a part of the ideal of the man of the world. We all remember the detestable motto of Horace, Nil admirari. To admire and love nothing much, to suffer no joy, no enthusiasm, no passion to dominate our souls is the only way, he said, to be happy. To be moderate in pleasures and vices, in enthusiasms and virtues; such was his recipe for happiness. It is the prescription of a certain type, not a high...