es not matter whether it is sailing
through fresh water or salt. And if you and I have that union with Jesus
Christ of which my text speaks, then we shall be, not wholly, but with
indefinite increase of approximation towards the ideal, independent of
circumstances and masters of our temperaments. And so it is possible, if
not absolutely to reach this fair achievement of an unbroken continuity
of gladness, at least to bring the lucent points so close to one another
as that the intervals of darkness between shall be scarcely visible,
and the whole will seem to form one continuous ring of light.

Brother, if you and I can keep near Jesus Christ always--and I suppose
we can do that in sorrow as in joy--He will take care that our keeping
near Him will not want its reward in that blessed continuity of felt
repose which is very near the sunniness of gladness. For, if we in the
Lord sorrow, we may, then, simultaneously, in the Lord rejoice. The two
things may go together, if in the one mood and the other we are in union
with Him. The bitterness of the bitterest calamity is taken away from it
when it does not separate us from Jesus Christ. And just as the mother
is specially tender with her sick child, and just as we have often found
that the sympathy of friends comes to us, when need and grief are upon
us, in a fashion that would have been incredible beforehand, so it is
surely true that Jesus Christ can, and does, soften His tone, and select
the tokens of His presence with especial tenderness for a wounded heart;
so as that sorrow in the Lord passes into joy in the Lord. And if that
be so, then the pillar which was cloud in the sunshine brightens into
fire as night falls on the desert.

But it is not only that this divine gladness is consistent with the
sorrow that is often necessary for us, but also that the continuity of
such gladness is secured, because in Christ there are open for us
sources of blessedness in what is else a dry and thirsty land. If you
would take this epistle at your leisure, and run over it in order to
note the various occasions of joy which the Apostle expresses for
himself, and commends to his brethren, you would see how beautifully
they reveal to us the power of communion with Jesus Christ, to find
honey in the rock, good in everything, and a reason for thankful
gladness in all events.

I have not time, at this stage of my sermon, to do more than just glance
at these. We find, for instance, that a ve