True Joy
O seek Him in earnest, and seek Him in time, For they that seek early shall find; While they that neglect Him are hardened in crime, And never can come to this pure blessed clime— They perish in anguish of mind.
Some people think there is no joy in religion — it is a gloomy thing. When a young person becomes a Christian, they would say, “He must bid farewell to pleasure, farewell to the joys of youth, farewell to a merry heart. He must exchange these pleasures for reading of the Bible and dry sermon books, for a life of gravity and precise-ness.” This is what the world says.
What does the Bible say? “I sat down under His shadow with great delight.” Let God be true, and every man a liar. Yet no one can believe this except those who have tried it. Be not deceived, my young friends; the world has many sensual and many sinful delights — the delights of revelry. No man of wisdom will deny that sinful delights perish in the using, and they end in an eternal hell! But to sit down under the shadow of Christ, wearied with God’s burning anger, wearied with seeking after vain saviors, at last to find rest under the shadow of Christ; this is great delight. Lord, evermore may I sit under this shadow! Lord, evermore may I be filled with this joy!
But I hear an objection. Youth is the time for mirth. I know well that youth is the time for mirth. The young lamb is a happy creature as it springs about on the green pasture. The young kid leaps from rock to rock with liveliest glee. The young horse casts its heels high in the air, full of life and activity. But then they have no sin, and you have; they have no hell, and you have. If you will come to Jesus Christ now, and be freed from wrath, then you will find that youth is the time for mirth, youth is the time for enjoying sweet peace in the heart, liveliest fellowship with God, and brightest hopes of glory.
But you say, “You would have us to be gloomy and sad.” God forbid. All that I maintain is that until you are come to Christ, your mirth is unreasonable. If you will come to Christ, then be as happy as you will; there are no bounds to your joy there, for you will joy in God. And when you die, you will come to fulness of joy in His presence, and pleasures at His right hand for evermore.
But I hear another say, “If I be Christless, it will not bring me into Christ to be sad, and therefore I may as well be merry.” True, to be sad will not bring you into Christ; and yet, if you were really awakened to cry to God, peradventure He would hear you cry. If you were striving to enter in, you might find entrance. If you were pressing into the kingdom, you might take it by violence. Seek meekness, seek righteousness. It may be you shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger. If you stay where you are, you are sure to be lost. If you live on in carnal security, while you are out of Christ, you are sure to perish.
“Rejoice, O young men, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment” (Ecclesiastes 11:9).
O seek Him in earnest,
and seek Him in time,
For they that seek early
shall find;
While they that neglect Him
are hardened in crime,
And never can come to this
pure blessed clime —
They perish in anguish
of mind.
Rev. Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843) was a Scottish divine whose labors were much blessed of Cod. He was translated to glory at the young age of 29, but his writings remain a priceless heritage.
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Bekijk de hele uitgave van zondag 1 september 1985
The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's
Bekijk de hele uitgave van zondag 1 september 1985
The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's