"THE BLESSING OF THE LORD, IT MAKETH RICH, AND HE ADDETH NO SORROW WITH IT." This is God's assurance to His people. Fear and sorrow naturally weaken us, but faith and joy increase strength. Joy is the tonic of the soul; it quickens, enlivens, emboldens, and makes us strong. Our Heavenly Father is called, "The blessed or the happy God." He is also the happy-making God. He loves to make His people happy; therefore, as the God of all comfort, He has made great provision for our happiness. There are wells of salvation, and He bids us draw from them with joy. There is an inexhaustible fulness in Jesus, and from that fulness we receive for every want, for every duty, for every trial. We cannot draw from it too often, we cannot go to it for too much. Hear our beloved Lord: "Ask and receive, that your joy may be full." It is only as we live, not of self, but upon Jesus, above the world in the realm of God's free grace, that we can be truly happy. A happy Christian is a strong Christian, and it is the strong Christian that brings much glory to God, much credit to His cause, and much good to the world. It is as much our duty to be happy, as to be holy. In Christ our Lord, be both!

For Meditation:
Rejoice evermore
In love and truth and power,
And the grace of your heavenly Friend;
Till to us who believe
He His glory shall give,
In the kingdom that never shall end.