the
skeleton at the feast in all earthly joy, and a man can never, down
to the roots of his being, be at rest until he is quite sure that
there is nothing wrong between him and God. And so believing, we come
to that root of all real gladness which is anything better than a
crackling of thorns under a pot, and to that beginning of all true
tranquillity. Joy in the Lord and peace with God are the parents of
all joy and peace that are worthy of the name.

And that same faith will again bring these two bright-winged angels
into the most saddened and troubled lives, because that faith brings
right relations with ourselves. For our inward strifes stuff thorns
into the pillow of our repose, and mingle bitterness with the
sweetest, foaming draughts of our earthly joys. If a man's conscience
and inclinations pull him two different ways, he is torn asunder as
by wild horses. If a man has a hungry heart, for ever yearning after
unattained and impossible blessings, then there is no rest there. If
a man's little kingdom within him is all anarchical, and each passion
and appetite setting up for itself, then there is no tranquillity.
But if by faith we let the God of hope come in, then hungry hearts
are satisfied, and warring dispositions are harmonised, and the
conscience becomes quieted, and fair imaginations fill the chamber of
the spirit, and the man is at rest, because he himself is unified by
the faith and fear of God.

And the same faith brings joy and peace because it sets right our
relations with other people, and with all externals. If I am living
in an atmosphere of trust, then sorrow will never be absolute, nor
have exclusive monopoly and possession of my spirit. But there will
be the paradox, and the blessedness, of Christian experience, 'as
sorrowful yet always rejoicing.' For the joy of the Christian life
has its source far away beyond the swamps from which the sour drops
of sorrow may trickle, and it is possible that, like the fabled fire
that burned under water, the joy of the Lord may be bright in my
heart, even when it is drenched in floods of calamity and distress.

And so, brethren, the joy and peace that come from faith will fill
the heart which trusts. Only remember how emphatically the Apostle
here puts these two things together, 'joy and peace in believing.' As
long as, and not a moment longer than, you are exercising the
Christian act of trust, will you be experiencing the Christian
blessedness of 'joy a