Mrs. David N. Geddes: qt-9-10-1923

THE

· PLEASURES OF RELIGION.

CHAPTER I.

THE PLEASURES WHICH CONSTITUTE TRUE HAPPINESS.

THE first duty of every intelligent and accountable being is, to glorify the Author of his existence, by cherishing towards him supreme and ardent affection, and by rendering to him the tribute of cheerful and unreserved obedience. But the duty of glorifying the blessed God, is not in the least opposed to the cultivation of our own happiness. He "for whom are all things, and by whom are all things," is the God of love. Benevolence is that distinguished glory of his character which he displays with the highest complacency. He delights in the communication of happiness; he makes his appeal perpetually to the desire of happiness implanted in every mind; he invites to the pursuit of happiness; and he graciously condescends to expostulate with those who are disposed to seek after happiness, by a course which must terminate in disappointment. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come

ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." Isa. lv. 1-3, 7.

Yielding ourselves, then, to the infallible. guidance of God's own word, and humbly imploring the aid of the Spirit of wisdom, to guide us into all truth, let us enter on the consideration of the pleasures which constitute true happiness. Should it be asked, what is included under the term happiness, as distinguished from pleasure, let it be replied, that, by happiness, we understand, a state of habitual enjoyment, arising from a continued succession of such pleasurable feelings as the mind deliberately approves.

The inquiry on which we now enter, regards the happiness of man in the present world. If, then, we would arrive at any satisfactory results, we must keep in mind the present constitution and the actual condition of man. He is a being not altogether corporeal, nor alto

gether spiritual; but constituted in part of matter, and in part of mind. Let it not, even for a moment, escape our notice, that he is a degenerate and apostate being, destitute of that purity, dignity, and felicity, which originally distinguished his nature, and displaying, with awful prominence, characteristics the very reverse. Unless these views of human nature be steadily retained before the eye of the mind, no inquiry into the subject proposed can possibly be conducted to a successful termination. It is not, then, surprising, that so little light is thrown upon the path of happiness by many of our philosophic writers, who have offered their guidance; since, in reference to their conceptions of the moral condition of man, it may be justly said, "The light which is in them is darkness."

It appears to me, that happiness, so far as it is attainable in the present life, is to be derived from four distinct sources of enjoyment: it is derivable,

FIRST, From the removal of the evils which are incompatible with happiness.

Man, as a sinner against God, lies under awful disqualifications for the enjoyment of true happiness. Two of these, if not removed by Divine interposition, must be fatal to his best attempts.

The first of these is, the curse which attaches to guilt.

It is written in the volume which never misleads us- "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in

the book of the law to do them," Gal. iii. 10. Is there upon the face of the earth a man "who doeth good, and sinneth not," and never has sinned? Eccl. vii. 20. Lives there an individual who has not become subject to that curse? Can then a feeble, dependent, mortal man be happy and secure, while exposed to the curse of the Almighty? Can he be happy with the full consciousness of transgressions unnumbered and unforgiven, and with the forebodings of a day of judgmentof a day of wrath? Would he be happy, let him enter on the momentous, the appropriate inquiry-"How shall man be just with God?" And if the lights of nature and of moral science conduct him not to the desired discovery, let him search the Scriptures which testify of Jesus, and learn from the history of a sinatoning Saviour, the wondrous means by which the curse may be removed far away from the offender, even by the redeeming blood of Him who was "made a curse for us." Gal. iii. 13. Are you engaged in the pursuit of happiness? Be assured that the very first step in the only road which leads to its attainment, is an approach to the God of mercy, by faith in the only Mediator, who himself was "made sin for us," though he "knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 2 Cor. v. 21. Approach, exulting in the joyous persuasion, that now God can be just while "the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Rom. iii. 26.

A second disqualification for happiness is,

the incapacity for true enojoyment, which arises from a depraved heart.

It is the assertion of an inspired apostle, that the unrenewed mind is enmity against God, and that it neither is, nor can be subject to the Divine law. Can, then, such a mind be happy? Can it be happy, when directly opposed to the principles of purity, and the requirements of rectitude? Can it be happy, when in determined hostility of feeling and of character against that adorable Being, who is himself the fountain of blessedness? It cannot be! By the very nature of things, by the direct tendencies of its own inclinations and passions, as well as by the righteous and irreversible determination of God, such a mind must remain destitute of happiness, unless it be transformed and renewed. But for the very purpose of this renovation, is there not the promise of an omnipotent agency? Is there not in the economy of redeeming love, a sanctifying Spirit, as well as an atoning Saviour? Are not his vivifying and purifying influences most graciously promised to the earnest suppliant? Must not every individual of the human race continue under an incapacity for happiness, unless he be renewed in the spirit of his mind? Eph. iv. 23. On this point there rests no uncertainty. It is thus decided by the Son of God himself "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," John iii. 2; he must of necessity remain a stranger to the happiness of that kingdom, both as it regards the reign of grace