Gladness is God’s ideal for his children. The Christian is exhorted to rejoice always. This does not mean that his life is exempt from trouble. The gospel does not give us a new set of conditions, with pain and sorrow eliminated. Christian gladness is something that overcomes sorrow.
There are many things which are meant to minister gladness. This is a beautiful world in which we live. We do not think enough about what God has done for our pleasure in the adorning of our earthly home. Many have said that, when Jesus speaks of the many mansions in the Father’s house, he does not refer to heaven only, but means that this world is one of the mansions, while heaven is another. Surely it is beautiful enough for an apartment of the Father’s house. No doubt heaven will be more lovely, for sin has left its trail on everything of earth. Yet there is loveliness enough in this world to fill our hearts with rapture.
Another thing that ministers to human gladness is the goodness of God in providence. The world is not only beautiful; it is our Father’s world. Jesus says that our Father feeds even the birds, and clothes even the flowers; and he assures us that his care for his children is much more tender and sure. “If I could not believe,” says one, “that there is a thinking mind at the centre of things, life would be to me intolerable.” But there is not only a thinking mind — there is also a Father’s heart at the centre of things. On every leaf is written a covenant of divine love. On every flower and tuft of moss is found a pledge of divine thought and faithfulness.
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