 Chapter 12 of Practical Religion. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, please contact LibriVox.org. Recorded by John Sherman Winfield, Illinois. Practical Religion by J. C. Ryle. Chapter 12. Freedom. If the Son of Man shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. John 8 and 36. The subject before our eyes deserves a thousand thoughts. It should ring in the ears of Englishmen and Scotchmen like the voice of a trumpet. We live in a land which is the very cradle of freedom, but are we ourselves free? The question is one which demands special attention at the present state of public opinion in Great Britain. The minds of many are wholly absorbed in politics, yet there is a freedom within the reach of all which few I am afraid ever think of. A freedom independent of all political changes, a freedom which neither queen, lords, and commons nor the cleverest popular leaders can bestow. This is the freedom about which I write this day. Do we know anything of it? Are we free? In opening this subject there are three points which I wish to bring forward. I will show in the first place the general excellence of freedom. I will show in the second place the best and truest kind of freedom. I will show in the last place the way in which the best kind of freedom may become your own. Let no reader think for a moment that this is going to be a political paper. I am no politician. I have no politics but those of the Bible. The only party I care for is the Lord's side. Show me where that is and it shall have my support. The only election I am very anxious about is the election of grace. My one desire is that sinners should make their own calling and election sure. The liberty I desire above all things to make known and further is the glorious liberty of the children of God. The government I care to support is the government which is on the shoulder of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Before Christ I want every knee to bow and every tongue to confess that He is Lord. I ask attention while I canvass these subjects. If you are not free, I want to guide you into true liberty. If you are free, I want you to know the full value of your freedom. The first thing I have to show is the general excellence of freedom. On this point, some readers may think it needless to say anything. They imagine all men know the value of freedom and that to dwell on it is mere waste of time. I do not agree with such people at all. I believe that myriads of Englishmen know nothing of the blessings which they enjoy in their own land. They have grown up from infancy into manhood in the midst of free institutions. They have not the least idea of the state of things in other countries. They are ignorant alike of those two worst forms of tyranny. The crushing tyranny of a cruel military despot and the intolerant tyranny of an unreasoning mob. In short, many Englishmen know nothing of the value of liberty because they have been born in the middle of it and have never been for a moment without it. I call then on everyone who reads this paper to remember that liberty is one of the greatest temporal blessings that man can have on this side of the grave. We live in a land where our bodies are free. So long as we hurt nobody's person or property or character, no one can touch us. The poorest man's house is his castle. We live in a land where our actions are free. So long as we support ourselves, we are free to choose what we will do, where we will go, and how we will spend our time. We live in a land where our consciences are free. So long as we hold quietly on our own way and do not interfere with others, we are free to worship God as we please, and no man may compel us to take his way to heaven. We live in a land where no foreigner rules over us. Our laws are made and altered by Englishmen like ourselves, and our governors dwell by our side, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. In short, we have every kind of freedom to an extent which no other nation on earth can equal. We have personal freedom, civil freedom, religious freedom, and national freedom. We have free bodies, free consciences, free speech, free thought, free action, free Bibles, free press, and free homes. How vast, how vast is this list of privileges, how endless the comforts which it contains. The full value of them can never perhaps be known. Well said the Jewish rabbis in ancient days. If the sea were ink and the world parchment, it would never serve to describe the praises of liberty. The lack of this freedom has been the most fertile cause for misery to nations in every age of the world. What reader of the Bible can fail to remember the sorrows of the children of Israel when they were bondmen under the Pharaoh in Egypt, or under the Philistines in Canaan? What student of history needs to be reminded of the woes inflicted on the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Italy by the hand of foreign oppressors, or of the Inquisition, who even in our own time has not heard of that enormous fountain of wretchedness, the slavery of the Negro race? No misery certainly is so great as the misery of slavery. To win and preserve freedom has been the aim of many national struggles which have deluged the earth with blood. Liberty has been the cause in which myriads of Greeks and Romans and Germans and Poles and Swiss and Englishmen and Americans have willingly laid down their lives. No price has been fought too great to pay in order that nations might be free. The champions of freedom in every age have been justly esteemed among the greatest benefactors of mankind. Such names as Moses and Gideon in Jewish history, such names as the Spartan Leonidas, the Roman Horatius, the German Martin Luther, the Swedish Gustavus Vassa, the Swiss William Tell, the Scotch Robert Bruce and John Knox, the English Alfred and Hampton and the Puritans, the American George Washington are all deservedly embalmed in history and will never be forgotten. To be the mother of many patriots is the highest praise for nation. The enemies of freedom in every age have been rightly regarded as the pests and nuisances of their times. Such names as Pharaoh in Egypt, Dionysius at Syracuse, Nero at Rome, Charles the Ninth in France, Bloody Mary in England are names which will never be rescued from disgrace. The public opinion of mankind will never cease to condemn them on the one ground that they would not let people be free. But why should I dwell on these things? Time and space would fail me if I were to attempt to say a tenth part of what might be said in praise of freedom. What are the annals of history but a long record of conflicts between the friends and foes of liberty? Where is the nation upon earth that has ever attained greatness and left its mark on the world without freedom? Which are the countries on the face of the globe at this very moment which are making the most progress in trade, in arts, in sciences, in civilization, in philosophy, in morals, in social happiness? Precisely those countries in which there is the greatest amount of true freedom. Which are the countries at this very day where the greatest amount of internal misery where we hear continually of secret plots and murmuring and discontent and attempts on life and property? Precisely those countries where freedom does not exist or exists only in name where men are treated as serfs and slaves and are not allowed to think and act for themselves. No wonder that a mighty transatlantic statesman declared on a great occasion to his assembled countrymen is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it all mighty God, I know not what course others may take but as for me give me liberty or give me death. Let us beware of undervaluing the liberty we enjoy in this country of ours as Englishmen. I am sure there is need of this warning. There is perhaps no country on earth where there is so much grumbling and false finding as there is in England. Men look at the fancy evils which they see around them and exaggerate both their number and their intensity. They refuse to look at the countless blessings and privileges which surround us or underrate the advantages of them. They forget that comparison should be applied to everything. With all our faults and defects there is at this hour no country on earth where there is so much liberty and happiness for all classes as there is in England. They forget that as long as human nature is corrupt it is vain to expect perfection here below. No laws or government whatever can possibly prevent a certain quantity of abuses and corruptions. Once more then I say let us beware of undervaluing English liberty and running eagerly after everyone who proposes sweeping changes. Changes are not always improvements. The old shoes may have some holes and defects but the new shoes may pinch so much that we cannot walk at all. No doubt we might have better laws and government than we have but I am quite sure we might easily have worse. At this very day there is no country on the face of the globe where there is so much care taken of the life and health and property and character and personal liberty of the meanest inhabitant as there is in England. Those who want to have more liberty should soon find if they cross the seas that there is no country on earth where there is so much real liberty as our own. While I bid men not undervalue English liberty so also on the other hand I charge them not to overvalue it. Never forget that temporal slavery is not the only slavery and temporal freedom not the only freedom. What shall it profit you to be a citizen of a free country so long as your soul is not free? What is the use of living in a free land like England with free thought, free speech, free action, free conscience so long as you are a slave to sin and a captive to the devil? Yes there are tyrants whom no eye can see as real and destructive as Pharaoh or Nero. There are chains which no hands can touch as true and heavy and soul withering as ever crushed the limbs of an African. It is these tyrants whom I want you this day to remember. It is these change from which I want you to be free. Value by all means your English liberty but do not overvalue it. Look higher further than any temporal freedom. In the highest sense let us take care that we are free. The second thing I have to show is the truest and best kind of freedom. The freedom I speak of is a freedom that is within the reach of every child of Adam who is willing to have it. No power on earth can prevent a man or woman having it if they have but the will to receive it. Tyrants may threaten and cast in prison but nothing they can do can stop a person having this liberty and once our own nothing can take it away. Men may torture us, banish us, hang us, behead us, burn us but they can never tear from us true freedom. The poorest may have it no less than the richest. The most unlearned may have it as well as the most learned and the weakest as well as the strongest. Laws cannot deprive us of it. Popes' bowls cannot rob us of it. Once our own it is an everlasting possession. Now what is this glorious freedom? Where is it to be found? What is it like? Who has obtained it for man? Who has got it at this moment to bestow? I ask my readers to give me their attention and I will supply a plain answer to these questions. The true freedom I speak of is spiritual freedom, freedom of soul. It is the freedom which Christ bestows without money and without price on true Christians. Those whom the Son makes free are free indeed. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2 Corinthians 3 and 17. Let men talk what they please of the comparative freedom of monarchies and republics. Let them struggle if they will for universal liberty, fraternity and equality. We never know the highest style of liberty till we are enrolled citizens of the kingdom of God. We are ignorant of the best kind of freedom if we are not Christ's free men. Christ's free men are free from the guilt of sin. That heavy burden of unforgiven transgressions which lies so heavily on many consciences no longer presses down. Christ's blood has cleansed it all away. They feel pardoned, reconciled, justified and accepted in God's sight. They can look back to their old sins however black and many and say, they cannot condemn me. They can look back on years of carelessness and worldliness and say, who shall lay anything to my charge? This is true liberty. This is to be free. Christ's free men are free from the power of sin. It no longer rules and reigns in their hearts and carries them before it like a flood. Through the power of Christ's spirit they mortify the deeds of their bodies and crucify their flesh with its affections and lusts. Through His grace, working in them, they get the victory over their evil inclinations. The flesh may fight but it does not conquer them. The devil may tempt and vex but it does not overcome them. They are no longer the bond slaves of lusts and appetites and passions and tempers. Over all these things they are more than conquerors through Him that loved them. This is true liberty. This is to be free. Christ's free men are free from the slavish fear of God. They no longer look at Him with dread and alarm as an offended maker. They no longer hate Him and get away from Him like Adam among the trees in the garden. They no longer tremble at the thought of His judgment. Through the spirit of adoption which Christ has given them they look on God as a reconciled Father and rejoice in the thought of His love. They feel that anger is passed away. They feel that when God the Father looks down upon them He sees them in Christ and unworthy as they are in themselves is well pleased. This is true liberty. This is to be free. Christ's free men are free from the fear of man. They are no longer afraid of man's opinions or care much for what man thinks of them. They are alike indifferent to his favor or his enmity, his smile or his frown. They look away from man who can be seen to Christ who is not seen and having the favor of Christ. They care little for the blame of man. The fear of man was once a snare to them. They trembled at the thought of what man could say or think or do. They dared not run counter to the fashions and customs of those around them. They shrank from the idea of standing alone. But the snare is now broken and they are delivered. This is true liberty. This is to be free. Christ's free men are free from the fear of death. They no longer look forward to it with silent dismay as a horrible thing which they do not care to think of. Through Christ they can look at this last enemy calmly in the face and say, Thou canst not harm me. They can look forward to all that comes after death, decay, resurrection, judgment and eternity and yet not feel cast down. They can stand by the side of an open grave and say, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? They can lay them down on their deathbeds and say, Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Psalm 23 and 4. Not a hair of my head shall perish. This is true liberty. This is to be free. Best of all, Christ's free men are free forever. Once enrolled in the list of heavenly citizens, their name shall never be struck off. Once presented with the freedom of Christ's kingdom, they shall possess it forevermore. The highest privileges of this world's freedom can only endure for a lifetime. The freest citizen on earth must submit at length to die and lose his franchise forever, but the franchise of Christ's people is eternal. They carry it down to the grave and it lives still. They will rise again with it at the last day and enjoy the privileges of it forevermore. This is true liberty. This is to be free. Does anyone ask how and in what way Christ has obtained these mighty privileges for his people? You have a right to ask the question and it is one that can never be answered too clearly. Give me your attention and I will show you by what means Christ has made his people free. The freedom of Christ's people has been procured like all other freedoms at a mighty cost and by a mighty sacrifice. Great was the bondage in which they were naturally held and great was the price necessary to be paid to set them free. Mighty was the enemy who claimed them as his captives and it needed mighty power to release them out of his hands. But blessed be God there was grace enough and power enough ready in Jesus Christ. He provided to the uttermost everything that was required to set his people free. The price that Christ paid for his people was nothing less than his own lifeblood. He became their substitute and suffered for their sins on the cross. He redeemed them from the curse of the law by being made a curse for them. Galatians 3 and 13. He paid all their debt in his own person by allowing the chastisement of their peace to be laid on him. Isaiah 53 and 5. He satisfied every possible demand of the law against them by fulfilling its righteousness to the uttermost. He cleared them from every imputation of sin by becoming sin for them. 2 Corinthians 5 and 21. He fought their battle with the devil and triumphed over him on the cross. As their champion, he spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly on Calvary. In a word, Christ, having given himself for us, has purchased the full right of redemption for us. Nothing can touch those to whom he gives freedom. Their debts are paid and paid a thousand times over. Their sins are atoned for by a full, perfect and sufficient atonement. A divine substitute's death meets completely the justice of God and provides completely redemption for man. Let us look well at this glorious plan of redemption and take heed that we understand it. Ignorance on this point is one great secret of faint hopes. Little comfort and ceaseless doubts in the mind of Christians. Too many are content with a vague idea that Christ will somehow save sinners but how or why they cannot tell. I protest against this ignorance. Let us set fully before our eyes the doctrine of Christ's vicarious death and substitution and rest our souls upon it. Let us grasp firmly the mighty truth that Christ on the cross stood in the place of his people, died for his people, suffered for his people, was counted a curse and sin for his people, paid the debts of his people, made satisfaction for his people, became the surety and representative of his people and in this way procured his people's freedom. Let us understand this clearly and then we shall see what a mighty privilege it is to be made free by Christ. This is the freedom which above all other is worth having. We can never value it too highly. There is no danger of overvaluing it. All other freedom is an unsatisfying thing at the best and a poor, uncertain possession at any time. Christ's freedom alone can never be overthrown. It is secured by a covenant ordered in all things and sure. Its foundations are laid in the eternal councils of God and no foreign enemy can overthrow them. They are cemented and secured by the blood of the Son of God himself and can never be cast down. The freedom of nations often lasts no longer than a few centuries. The freedom which Christ gives to any one of his people is a freedom that shall outlive the solid world. This is the truest, highest kind of freedom. This is the freedom which in a changing dying world I want men to possess. I have now to show in the last place the way in which this best kind of freedom is made our own. This is a point of vast important on account of the many mistakes which prevail about it. Thousands perhaps will allow that there is such a thing as spiritual freedom and that Christ alone has purchased it for us but when they come to the application of redemption they go astray. We cannot answer the question who are those whom Christ effectually makes free and for want of knowledge of the answer they sit still in their chains. I ask every reader to give me his attention once more and I will try to throw a little light on the subject. Useless indeed is the redemption which Christ has obtained unless you know how the fruit of that redemption can become your own. In vain have you read of the freedom wherewith Christ makes people free unless you understand how you yourself may have an interest in it. We are not born Christ's freemen. The inhabitants of many a city enjoy privileges by virtue of their birthplace. St. Paul who drew life breath first at Tarsus in Cilicia could say to the Roman commander, I was freeborn but this is not the case with Adam's children in spiritual things. We are born slaves and servants of sin. We are by nature children of wrath and destitute of any title to heaven. We are not made Christ's freemen by baptism. Myriads are every year brought to the font and solemnly baptized in the name of the Trinity who serve sin like slaves and neglect Christ all their days. Wretched indeed is that man's state of soul who can give no better evidence of his citizenship of heaven than the mere naked fact of his baptism. We are not made Christ's freemen by mere membership of Christ's church. There are companies and corporations whose members are entitled to vast privileges without any respect to their personal character if their names are only on the list of members. The kingdom of Christ is not a corporation of this kind. The grand test of belonging to it is personal character. Let these things sink down into our minds. Far be it from me to narrow the extent of Christ's redemption. The price he paid on the cross is sufficient for the whole world. Far be it from me to undervalue baptism or church membership, the ordinance which Christ appointed and the church which he maintains in the midst of a dark world ought neither of them to be likely esteemed. All I contend for is the absolute necessity of not being content either with baptism or church membership. If our religion stops short here it is unprofitable and unsatisfying. It needs something more than this to give us an interest in the redemption which Christ has purchased. There is no other way to become Christ's freemen than that of simply believing. It is by faith, simple faith in him as our savior and redeemer that men's souls are made free. It is by receiving Christ, trusting Christ, committing ourselves to Christ, reposing our whole weight on Christ. It is by this and by no other plan that spiritual liberty is made our own. Mighty as are the privileges which Christ's freemen possess, they all become a man's property in the day that he first believes. He may not yet know their full value, but they are all his own. He that believeth in Christ is not condemned, is justified, is born again, is an heir of God and hath everlasting life. The truth before us is one of priceless importance. Let us cling to it firmly and never let it go. If you desire peace of conscience, if you want inward rest and consolation, stir not an inch off the ground that faith is the grand secret of an interest in Christ's redemption. Take the simplest view of faith. Beware of confusing your mind by complicated ideas about it. Follow holiness as closely as you can. Seek the fullest and clearest evidence of the inward work of the spirit. But in the matter of an interest in Christ's redemption, remember that faith stands alone. It is by believing. Simply believing that souls become free. Know doctrine like this to suit the ignorant and unlearned. Visit the poorest and humblest codger who knows nothing of theology and cannot even repeat the creed. Tell him the story of the cross and the good news about Jesus Christ and his love to sinners. Show him that there is freedom provided for him as well as for the most learned in the land. Freedom from guilt, freedom from the devil, freedom from condemnation, freedom from hell. And then tell him plainly, boldly, broadly, unreservedly that this freedom may be all his own if he will but trust in Christ and believe. Know doctrine like this to suit the sick and dying. Go to the bedside of the vilest sinner when death is coming nigh and tell him lovingly that there is a hope even for him if he can receive it. Tell him that Christ came into the world to save sinners, even the chief of them. Tell him that Christ has done all, paid all, performed all, purchased all that the soul of man can possibly need for salvation. And then assure him that he, even he may be freed at once from all his guilt if he will only believe. Yes, say to him in the words of Scripture if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved. Romans 10 and 9. Let us never forget that this is the point in which we must turn our own eyes if we would know whether we have a saving interest in Christ's redemption. Waste not your time in speculations whether you are elect and converted and a vessel of grace. Stand not pouring over the unprofitable question of whether Christ died for you or not. That is a point of which no one ever made any question in the Bible. Let's pause our thoughts on this one simple inquiry. Do I really trust in Christ as a humble sinner? Do I cast myself on him? Do I believe? Look not to anything else. Look at this alone. Fear not to rest your soul on plain texts and promises of Scripture. If you believe, you are free. And now as I bring this paper to a conclusion let me affectionately press upon every reader the inquiry which grows naturally out of the whole subject. Let me ask everyone a plain question. Are you free? I know not who or what you are in whose hands this paper has fallen but this I do know there never was an age when the inquiry I press upon you was more thoroughly needed. Political liberty, civil liberty, commercial liberty, liberty of speech, liberty of the press, all these and a hundred other kindred subjects are swallowing up men's attention. Few, very few find time to think of spiritual liberty. Many, too many, forget that no man is so thoroughly a slave whatever his position as the man who serves sin. Yes, there are thousands in this country who are slaves of beer and spirits, slaves of lust, slaves of ambition, slaves of political party, slaves of money, slaves of gambling, slaves of fashion or slaves of temper. You may not see their chains with the naked eye and they themselves may boast of their liberty but for all that they are thoroughly slaves. Whether men like to hear it or not, the gambler and the drunkard, the covetous and the passionate, the glutton and the sensualist are not free but slaves. They are bound hand and foot by the devil. He that commiteth sin is the servant of sin. Romans 8 and 34. He that boasts of liberty while he is enslaved by lusts and passions is going down to hell with a lie in his right hand. Awake to see these things while health and time and life are granted to you. Let not political struggles and party strife make you forget your precious soul. Take any side in politics you please and follow honestly your conscientious convictions but never, never forget that there is a liberty far higher and more lasting than any politics can give you. Rest not till that liberty is your own. Rest not till your soul is free. Do you not feel any desire to be free? Do you find any longing within you for a higher, better liberty than this world can give, a liberty that will not die at your death but will go with you beyond the grave? Then take the advice I give you this day. Seek Christ, repent, believe and be free. Christ has a glorious liberty to bestow on all who humbly cry to him for freedom. Christ can take burdens off your heart and strike chains off your inward man. If the sun shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. John 8 and 36. Freedom like this is the secret of true happiness. None go through the world with such ease and content as those who are citizens of a heavenly country. Earth's burdens press lightly upon their shoulders. Earth's disappointments do not crush them down as they do others. Earth's duties and anxieties do not drink up their spirit. In their darkest hours they have always this sustaining thought to fall back on. I have something which makes me independent of this world. I am spiritually free. Freedom like this is the freedom of being a good politician. In every age Christ's freemen have been the truest friends to law and order and to measures for benefit of all classes of mankind. Never, never let it be forgotten that the despised Puritans 200 years ago did more for the cause of real liberty in England than all the governments which ever ruled this land. No man ever made the country so feared and respected as Oliver Cromwell. The root of the most genuine patriotism is to be one of those whom Christ has made free. Are you spiritually free? Then rejoice and be thankful for your freedom. Care not for the scorn and contempt of men. Have no cause to be ashamed of your religion or your master? He whose citizenship is in heaven, Philippians 3 and 20, who has God for his father and Christ for his elder brother, angels for his daily guards and heaven itself for his home is one that is well provided for. No change of laws can add to this greatness. No extension of franchise can raise him higher than he stands in God's sight. The lions are fallen to him in pleasant places and he has a goodly heritage. Psalm 16 and 6. Grace now and the hope of glory hereafter are more lasting privileges than the power of voting for 20 boroughs or counties. Are you free? Then stand fast in your liberty and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage. Listen not to those who by good words and fair speeches would draw you back into the church of Rome. Beware of those who would fain persuade you that there is any mediator but the one mediator, Christ Jesus. Any sacrifice but the one sacrifice offered on Calvary. Any priest but the great high priest Emmanuel. Any incense needed in worship but the savor of his name who was crucified. Any faith and practice but God's word. Any confessional but the throne of grace. Any effectual absolution but that which Christ bestows on the hearts of his believing people. Any purgatory but the one fountain open for all sins. The blood of Christ to be only used while we are alive. On all these points stand fast and be on your guard. Scores of misguided teachers are trying to rob Christians of the gospel liberty and to bring back among us exploded superstitions. Resist them manfully and do not give way for a moment. Remember what Romanism was in this country before the Blessed Reformation. Remember at what mighty cost our martyred reformers brought spiritual freedom to light by the gospel. Stand fast for this freedom like a man and labor to hand it down to your children whole and unimpaired. Are you free? Then think every day you live of the millions of your fellow creatures who are yet bound hand and foot in spiritual darkness. Think of 600 millions of heathens who never yet heard of Christ and salvation. Think of the poor homeless Jews scattered and wandering over the face of the earth because they have not yet received their Messiah. Think of the millions of Roman Catholics who are yet in captivity under the Pope and know nothing of true liberty, light and peace. Think of the myriads of your own fellow countrymen in our great cities who without sabbaths and without means of grace are practically heathens and whom the devil is continually leading captive at his will. Think of them all and feel for them. Think of them all and often say to yourself what can I do for them? How can I help to set them free? What shall it be proclaimed at the last day that Pharisees and Jesuits have compassed sea and land to make proselytes that politicians have leagued and labored night and day to obtain Catholic emancipation and free trade that philanthropists have travailed in soul for years to procure the suppression of Negroes' slavery and shall it appear at the same time that Christ's free men have done little to rescue men and women from hell? Forbid it. Faith. Forbid it, charity. Surely if the children of this world are zealous to promote temporal freedom, the children of God ought to be much more zealous to promote spiritual freedom. Let the time past suffice us to have been selfish and indolent in this matter, for the rest of our days let us use every effort to promote spiritual emancipation. If we have tasted the blessings of freedom, let us spare no pains to make others free. Are you free? Then look forward in faith and hope for good things yet to come. Free as we are if we believe on Christ's from the guilt and power of sin, we must surely feel every day that we are not free from its presence and the temptations of the devil. Redeemed as we are from the eternal consequences of the fall, we must often feel that we are not yet redeemed from the sickness and infirmity, from sorrow and from pain. No, indeed. Where is the freeman of Christ on earth who is not often painfully reminded that we are not... No, indeed. Where is the freeman of Christ on earth who is not often painfully reminded that we are not yet in heaven? We are yet in the body. We are yet traveling through the wilderness of this world. We are not at home. We have shed many tears already, and probably we shall have to shed many more. We have got yet within us a poor, weak heart. We are yet liable to be assaulted by the devil. Our redemption is begun indeed, but it is not yet completed. We have redemption now in the root, but we have it not yet in the flower. But let us take courage. There are better days yet to come. Our great Redeemer and liberator has gone before us to prepare a place for his people, and when he comes again, our redemption will be complete. The great Jubilee year has yet to come. A few more returns of Christmas and New Year's days. A few more meetings and partings. A few more births and deaths. A few more weddings and funerals. A few more tears and struggles. A few more sicknesses and pains. A few more Sabbaths and sacraments. A few more preachings and prayings. A few more... and the end will come. Our Master will come back again. The dead saints shall be raised. The living saints shall be changed. Then and not till then, we shall be completely free. The liberty which we enjoyed by faith shall be changed into the liberty of sight and the freedom of hope into the freedom of certainty. Come then and let us resolve to wait and watch and hope and pray and live like men who have something laid up for them in heaven. The night is far spent and the day is at hand. Our king is not far off. Our full redemption draws nigh. Our full salvation is nearer than when we believed. The signs of the times are strange and demand every Christian's serious attention. The kingdoms of this world are in confusion. The powers of this world, both temporal and ecclesiastical, are everywhere reeling and shaken to their foundations. Happy, thrice happy are those who are citizens of Christ's eternal kingdom and ready for anything that may come. Blessed indeed are those men and women who know and feel that they are free. End of chapter 12 Chapter 10, Part 1 of Practical Religion This is a Libydox recording. All Libydox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libydox.org Recording by Roof Chapter 10, Part 1, Happiness Happy is that people whose God is the Lord. Psalm 144, Verse 15 An infidel was once addressing a crowd of people in the open air. He was trying to persuade them that there was no God and no devil in heaven and no hell, no resurrection, no judgment and no life to come. He advised them to throw away their Bibles and not to mind what Parsons said. He recommended them to think as he did and to be like him. He talked boldly. The crowd listened eagerly. It was the blind leading the blind, both were falling into the ditch. Matthew 15, 14 In the middle of his address a poor old woman suddenly pushed her way through the crowd to the place where he was standing. She stood before him. She looked him full in the face. Sir, she said in a loud voice, are you happy? The infidel looked scornfully at her and gave her no answer. Sir, she said again, I ask you to answer my question. Are you happy? You want us to throw away our Bibles? You tell us not to believe what Parsons say about religion. You advise us to think as you do and be like you. Now before we take your advice we have a right to know what good we shall get by it. Do your fine new notions give you much comfort? Do you yourself really feel happy? The infidel stopped and attempted to answer the old woman's question. He stammered and shuffled and fidgeted and endeavored to explain his meaning. He tried hard to turn the subject. He said he had not come there to preach about happiness but it was of no use. The old woman stuck to her point. She insisted on her question being answered and the crowd took her part. She pressed him hard with her inquiry and would take no excuse. At last the infidel was obliged to leave the ground and sneak off in confusion. He could not reply to the question. His conscience would not let him. He dared not say that he was happy. The old woman showed great wisdom in asking the question that she did. The argument she used may seem very simple but in reality it is one of the most powerful that can be employed. It is a weapon that has more effect on some mind than the most elaborate reasoning of Butler or Paley or Chalmers. Whenever a man begins to take up new views of religion and pretends to despise the old Bible Christianity first home at his conscience the old woman's question. Ask him whether his new views make him feel comfortable within. Ask him whether he can say with honesty and sincerity that he is happy. The grand test of a man's faith in religion is does it make him happy? Let me now affectionately invite every creek reader to consider the subject of this paper. Let me warn you to remember that the salvation of your soul and nothing less is closely bound up with the subject. The heart cannot be right in the sight of God which knows nothing of happiness. That man or woman cannot be in a safe state of soul who feels nothing of peace within. There are three things which I purpose to do in order to clear up the subject of happiness. I ask special attention to each one of them and I pray the spirit of God to apply all to the souls of all who read this paper. 1. Let me point out some things which are absolutely essential to all happiness. 2. Let me expose some common mistakes about the way to be happy. 3. Let me show the way to be truly happy. 1. First of all I have to point out some things which are absolutely essential to all true happiness. Happiness is what all mankind wants to obtain. The desire of it is deeply planted in the human heart. All men naturally dislike pain, sorrow and discomfort. All men naturally like ease, comfort and gladness. All men naturally hunger and thirst after happiness. Just as a sick man longs for health and the prisoner of war for liberty, just as the parts traveller in hot countries longs to see the cooling fountain or the ice-bound polar voyager the sun rising above the horizon, just in the same way does poor mortal man long to be happy. But alas, how few consider what they really mean when they talk of happiness. How vague and indistinct and undefined the ideas of most men are upon the subject. They think some are happy who in reality are miserable. They think some are gloomy and sad who in reality are truly happy. They dream of a happiness which in reality would never satisfy their nature's wants. Let me try this day to throw a little light on the subject. True happiness is not perfect freedom from sorrow and discomfort. Let that never be forgotten. If it were so there would be no such thing as happiness in the world. Such happiness is for angels who have never fallen and not for man. The happiness I am inquiring about is such as a poor, dying, sinful creature my hope to attain. Our whole nature is defiled by sin. Evil abounds in the world. Sickness and death and change are daily doing their side work on every side. In such a state of things that highest happiness man can attain to on earth must necessarily be a mixed thing. If we expect to find any literally perfect happiness on this side of the grave we expect what we shall not find. True happiness does not consist in laughter and smiles. The face is very often a poor index of the inward man. There are thousands who laugh loud and are merry as a grasshopper in company but are wretched and miserable in private and almost afraid to be alone. There are hundreds who are grave and serious in their demeanour whose hearts are full of solid peace. A poet of our own has truly told us that smiles are worth but little. A man may smile and smile and be a villain. And the eternal word of God teaches us that even in laughter the heart is sorrowful for us fourteen, thirteen. Tell me not merely of smiling and laughing faces. I want to hear something more than that when I ask whether a man is happy. A truly happy man no doubt will often show his happiness in his countenance but a man may have a very merry face and yet not be happy at all. Of all deceptive things on earth nothing is so deceptive as mere gayity and merriment. It is a hollow empty show utterly devoid of substance and reality. Listen to the brilliant talk in society and mark the applause that she receives from an admiring company. Follow him to his own private room and you will very likely find him in melancholy despondency. Colonel Gardner confessed that even when he was fought most happy he often wished he was a dog. Look at the smiling beauty in the ballroom and you might suppose she knows not what it was to be unhappy. See her next day at her own home and you may probably find her out of temper with herself and everybody else besides. Oh no, worldly merriment is not real happiness. There is a certain pleasure about it I do not deny. There is an animal excitement about it I make no question. There is a temporary elevation of spirits about it I freely concede but call it not by the sacred name of happiness. The most beautiful cut flowers stuck into the ground do not make a garden. A glass is called diamond and tinsel is called gold. Then and not till then your people who can laugh and smile will deserve to be called happy men. Cervantes, author of Don Criotti at a time when all Spain was laughing at his humorous work was overwhelmed with a deep cloud of melancholy. Molaire, the first of French comic writers carried into his domestic circle a sadness which the greatest worldly prosperity could never dispel. Samuel Foote, the noted widow of the last century died of a broken heart. Theodore Hooke, the facetious novel writer who could set everybody laughing sides of himself and his diary. I am suffering under a constant depression of spirits which no one who sees me in society dreams of. A woe be gone stranger consulted a physician about his health. Physician advised him to keep up his spirits by going to hear the great comic actor of the day. You should go and hear Matthews he would make you well. Alas, sir, was the reply. I am Matthews himself. Pictore your pages. End of footnote. To be truly happy the highest wants for man's nature must be met and satisfied. The requirements of his curiously wrought constitution must all be filled up. There must be nothing about him that cries, give, give, but cries in vain and gets no answer. The horse and the ox are happy as long as they are warmed and filled. And why? It is because they are satisfied. The little infant looks happy when it is clothed and fed and well and in its mother's arms. And why? Because it is satisfied. And just so it is with man his highest wants must be met and satisfied before he can be truly happy. All must be filled up. There must be no void, no empty places, no unsupplied cravings. Till then he is never truly happy. And what our man's principle wants? Has he a body only? No, he has something more. He has a soul. Has he sensual faculties only? Can he do nothing but hear and see and smell and taste and feel? No, he has a thinking mind and a conscience. Has he no consciousness of any world but that in which he lives and moves? He has. There is a still small voice within him which often makes itself heard. This life is not all. There is a world unseen. There is a life beyond the grave. Yes, it is true. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. All men know it. All men feel it if they would only speak the truth. It is utter nonsense to pretend that food and raiment and earthly good things alone can make men happy. There are soul wants. There are conscience wants. There can be no true happiness until these wants are satisfied. To be truly happy a man must have sources of gladness which are not dependent on anything in this world. There is nothing upon earth which is not stamped with the mark of instability and uncertainty. All the good things that money can buy are but for a moment. They either leave us or we are obliged to leave them. All the sweetest relationships in life are liable to come to an end. Death may come any day and cut them off. The man whose happiness depends entirely on things here below is like him who built his house and sand or leans his weight on a reed. Tell me not of your happiness if it daily hangs on the uncertainties of earth. Your home may be rich in comforts. Your wife and children may be all you could desire. Your means may be amply sufficient to meet all your wants. But oh remember if you have nothing more than this to look to that you stand on the brink of a purposes. Your rivers of pleasure may any day be dried up. Your joy may be deep and earnest but it is fearfully short-lived. It has no root. It is not true happiness. To be really happy a man must be able to look inside of our uncomfortable feelings. He must be able to look back to the past without guilty fears. He must be able to look round him without discontent. He must be able to look forward without anxious dread. He must be able to sit down and think calmly about things past, present and to come and feel prepared. The man who has a weak side in his condition a side that he does not like looking at or considering that man is not really happy. Talk not to me of your happiness if you are unable to look steadily either before or behind you. Your present position may be easy and pleasant. You may find many sources of joy and gladness in your profession. Your dwelling place your family and your friends. Your health may be good your spirits may be cheerful but stop and think quietly over your past life. Can you reflect calmly on all the omissions and commissions of bygone years? How will they bear God's inspection? How will you answer for them at the last day? And then look forward and think on the years yet to come. Think of the certain end towards which you are hastening. Think of death. Think of judgment. Think of the hour when you will meet God face to face. Are you ready for it? Are you prepared? Can you look forward to those things without alarm? Oh, be very sure if you cannot look comfortably at any season but the present. Your boasted happiness is a poor and real thing. It is but a whitened sepulchre there and beautiful without but bones and corruption within. It is a mere thing of a day like Jonah's God. It is not real happiness. I ask my readers to fix in their minds the account of things essential to happiness which I have attempted to give. Dismiss from your thoughts the many mistaken notions which pass current on this subject like counterfeit coin. To be truly happy the wants of your soul and conscience must be satisfied. For truly happy your joy must be founded on something more than this world can give you. To be truly happy you must be able to look on every side, above, below, behind, before and feel that all is right. This is real, thrilling, genuine happiness. This is the happiness I have in view when I urge on your notice the subject of this paper. 2. In the next place let me expose some common mistakes about the way to be happy. There are several roads which are fought by many to lead to happiness. Each of these roads, thousands and tens of thousands of men and women are continually travelling. Each fancies that if he could only win all he wants he would be happy. Each fancies if he does not succeed that the fault is not in his road but in his own want of luck and good fortune. And all alike seem ignorant that they are hunting shadows. They have started in a wrong direction. They are seeking that which can never be found in the place where they seek it. I will mention by name some of the principal delusions about happiness. I do it in love and charity and compassion for men's souls. I believe it to be a public duty to warn people against cheats, quacks and imposters. Oh how much trouble and sorrow it might save my readers if they would only believe what I am going to say. It is an utter mistake to suppose that rank and greatness alone can give happiness. The kings and rulers of this world are not necessarily happy men. They are troubles and crosses which none know but themselves. They see a thousand evils which they are unable to remedy. They are slaves working in golden chains and have less real liberty than any in the world. They have burdens and responsibilities laid upon them which are a daily weight on their hearts. The Roman emperor Antonin often said that the Imperial power was an ocean of miseries. Queen Elizabeth when she heard a milkmaid singing wished that she had been born to a lot like hers. Whoever did our great poet write a true word than when he said uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. It is an utter mistake to suppose that riches alone can give happiness. They can enable a man to command and possess everything but inward peace. They cannot buy a cheerful spirit in a light heart. There is care in the getting of them and care in the keeping of them. Care in the using of them and care in the disposing of them. Care in the gathering and care in the scattering of them. He was a wise man who said that money was only another word for trouble and that the same English letters which spell acres would also spell cares. It is an utter mistake to suppose that learning and science alone can give happiness. They may occupy a man's time and attention but they cannot really make him happy. They that increase knowledge and increase sorrow the more they learn the more they discover their own ignorance. Ecclesiastes 1 18 It is not in the power things on earth are under the earth to minister to a mind diseased. The heart wants something as well as the head. The conscience needs food as well as the intellect. All the secular knowledge in the world will not give the man joy and gladness when he thinks on sickness they that have climbed the highest have often found themselves solitary dissatisfied the empty of peace. The learned sound and at the close of his life confessed that all his learning did not give him such comfort as four verses of St. Paul Titus 2 11-14 It is an utter mistake to suppose that I do not alone can give happiness. The labourer who gets up at five in the morning and goes out to work all day in a cold clay ditch often thinks as he walks past the rich man's door. What a fine thing it must be to have no work to do. Poor fellow. He little knows what he thinks. The most miserable creature on earth is the man who has nothing to do. Work for the hands or work for the head is absolutely essential to human happiness. Without it the mind feeds upon itself and the whole inward man becomes diseased. The machinery within will work without something to work upon or often wear itself to pieces. There was no idleness in Eden. Adam and Eve had to dress the garden and keep it. There will be no idleness in Heaven. God's servant shall serve him. O be very sure the idlest man is the man most truly unhappy. Genesis 2.15 Revelation 22.3 It is an utter mistake to suppose that pleasure-seeking and amusement alone can give happiness. Of all roads that men can take in order to be happy this is the one that is most completely wrong. Of all weary, flat, dull and unprofitable ways of spending life this exceeds all. To think of a dying creature of an immortal soul expecting happiness in feasting and reveling, in dancing and singing in dressing and visiting in ball-going and card-playing in races and fares in hunting and shooting in crowds and laughter and noise in music and wine surely it is a sight that is enough to make the devil laugh and the angels weep. Even a child will not play of its toys all day long it must have food but when grown-up men and women think to find happiness in a constant round of amusement they sink far below a child. I place before every reader of this paper these common mistakes about the way to be happy I ask you to mark them well I warn you plainly against these pretended shortcuts to happiness however crowded they may be I tell you that if you fancy any one of them can lead you to true peace you are entirely deceived your conscience will never feel satisfied your immortal soul will never feel easy your whole environment will never feel easy your whole inward man will feel uncomfortable and out of health take any one of these roads or take all of them and if you have nothing besides to look to you will never find happiness you may travel on and on and on and a wished fore-object will seem as far away at the end of each state of life as when you started you are like one pouring water into a sieve or putting money into a bag with holes you might as well try to make an elephant happy by feeding him with a grain of sand a day as try to satisfy that heart of yours with rank riches, learning, idleness or pleasure do you doubt the truth of all I am saying I dare say you do then let us turn to the great book of human experience and read over a few lines out of its solemn pages you shall have the testimony of a few competent witnesses at the time urging on your attention a king shall be our first witness I mean Solomon king of Israel we know that he had power and wisdom and wealth far exceeding that of any ruler of his time we know from his own confession that he tried the great experiment how far the good things of this world can make man happy we know from the record of his own hand the result of this curious experiment he writes it by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost for the benefit of the whole world in the book of Ecclesiastes never surely was the experiment tried under such favorable circumstances never was anyone so likely to succeed as the Jewish king yet what is Solomon's testimony you have it in his melancholy words all his vanity and vexation of spirit Ecclesiastes 1 14 a famous French lady shall be our next witness I mean Madame de Pompadour she was the friend and favourite of Louis XV she had unbounded influence at the court of France she wanted nothing that money could procure yet what does she say herself what a situation is that of the great the only live in the future and only happy in hope there is no peace in ambition I am always gloomy and often so unreasonably the kindness of the king the regard of courtiers the attachment of my domestics and the fidelity of a large number of friends motifs like these which ought to make me happy affect me no longer I have no longer inclinations for all which once pleased me I have caused my house at Paris to be magnificently furnished well it pleased for two days my residence above you is charming and I alone cannot endure it benevolent people relate to me all the news and adventures of Paris they think I listen but when they have done I ask them what they said in a word I do not live I am dead before my time I have no interest in the world everything conspires to embitter my life my life is a continual death to such testimony I need not add a single word Sinclair's anecdotes and aporisms page 33 a famous German writer should be our next witness I mean Goeth it is well known that he was almost idolised on many during his life his works of read and admired by thousands his name was known and honoured wherever German was read all over the world and yet the praise of men of which he reaped such an abundant harvest was utterly unable to make Goeth happy he confessed when about 80 years old that he could not remember being in a really happy state of mind even for a few weeks together and that when he wished to feel happy he had to vile his self-consciousness see Sinclair's anecdotes and aporisms page 280 an English peer and parrot should be our next witness I mean Lord Byron if ever there was one who ought to have been happy according to the standard of the world Lord Byron was the man he began life with all the advantages of English rank and position he had splendid abilities and powers of mind which the world soon discovered and was ready to honour he had a sufficiency of means to gratify every lawful wish and never knew anything of real poverty humanly speaking he had seen nothing to prevent him during life and being happy yet it is a notorious fact that Byron was the miserable man misery stands out in his poems misery creeps out in his letters weariness seiety disgust and discontent appear in all his ways he is an awful warning that rank and title and literary fame alone are not sufficient to make a man happy a man of science shall be our next witness I mean Sir Humphrey Davy he was a man eminently successful in the line of life which he chose and deservedly so a distinguished philosopher the inventor of the famous safety lamp which bears his name and has preserved so many poor miners from death by fire damp a baronet of the united kingdom and president of the world society his whole life seemed a continual career of prosperity if learning alone were the road to happiness this man at least ought to have been happy yet what was the true record of Davy's feelings we have it in his own melancholy journal at the latter part of his life he described himself in two painful words very miserable a man of wit and pleasure shall be our next witness I mean Lord Chesterfield he shall speak for himself his own words in a letter shall be his testimony I have seen the silly round of business and pleasure and have done with it all I have enjoyed all the pleasures of the world and consequently know their futility and do not regret their loss I appraise them at their real value which in truth is very low whereas those who have not experienced always overrate them they only see their gay outside and I dazzle to their glare but I have been behind the scenes I have seen all the coarse pulleys and dirty ropes which exhibit and move the gaudy machine and I have seen and smelt the tallow candles which illuminate the whole decoration to the astonishment and admiration of the ignorant audience when I reflect on what I have seen what I have heard and what I have done I cannot persuade myself that all this frivolous hurry of bustle and pleasure of the world had any reality and I look on all that is past as one of those romantic dreams which opiate on occasions and I do by no means wish to repeat the nauseous dose for the sake of the fugitive dream these dreams' sentences speak for themselves I need not add to them one single word the statesmen and politicians who have swayed the destinies of the world ought by good right to be our last witnesses but I forbear in Christian charity to bring them forward it makes my heart ache when I run my eye over the list of names famous in English history and think how many have worn out their lives in a breathless struggle after place and distinction how many of our greatest men have died of a broken heart disappointed, disgusted and tried with constant failure how many have left on record some humbling confession that in the plentitude of their power they were pining for a rest as the caged eagle for liberty how many who in the world is applauding as masters of the situation and reality little better than galley slaves chained to the awe and unable to get free alas there are many sad proofs among both the living and the dead that to be great and powerful is not necessarily to be happy I think it very likely that men do not believe what I am saying I know something of the deceitfulness of the heart and the subject of happiness there are few things which man is so so to believe as the truths I am now putting forth about the way to be happy bear with me then while I say something more come and stand with me some afternoon in the heart of the city of London let us watch the faces of most of the wealthy men whom we shall see leaving their houses of business at the close of the day some of them are worth hundreds of thousands some of them are worth millions of pounds but what is written in the countances of these grave men whom we see swarming out from Lombard Street and Cornhill from the Bank of England and the Stock Exchange what mean these deep lines its furrows so many a cheek and so many a brow what means that there are anxious thoughtfulness which is warmed by five out of every six we meet ah these things tell a serious tale they tell us that it needs something more than gold and banknotes to make men happy come next and stand with me near the houses of parliament in the middle of a busy session let us scan the faces of peers and commoners whose names are familiar and well known all over the civilised world there you may see on some fine May evening the mightiest statesmen in England hurrying to a debate like eagles to the carcass each has a power of good or evil in his tongue which it is fearful to contemplate each may say things before tomorrow's sun dawns which may affect the peace and prosperity of nations and convulse the world there you may see the men who hold the reins of power and government already there you may see the men who are daily watching for an opportunity of snatching those reins out of their hands and governing in their stead but what do their faces tell us as they hasten to their posts what may be learned from their care-worn countenances what may be read in many of their wrinkled foreheads so absent-looking and sunk in thought they teach us a solemn lesson they teach us that it needs something more than political greatness to make men happy come next stand with me in the most fashionable part of London in the height of the season let us visit Regent Street or Paul Mall Hyde Park or Mather the places and splendid equipsages we shall see how many we shall count up in an hour's time who seem to possess the choicest gifts of this world beauty, wealth, rank fashion and troops of friends but alas how few we shall see who appear happy in how many countenances we shall read weariness dissatisfaction, discontent sorrow or unhappiness as clearly as if it was written with a pen yes, it is a humbling lesson to learn but a very wholesome one it needs something more than rank and fashion and beauty to make people happy come next and walk with me through some quiet country parish in merry England let us visit some secluded corner in our beautiful old Fatherland far away from great towns and fashionable dissipation and political strife there are not a few such to be found in the land there are rural parishes where there is neither street nor public house nor beer shop where there is work for all the labourers and a church for all the population and a score for all the children and a minister of the gospel to look after the people surely you will say we shall find happiness there surely such power systems be the very abodes of peace and joy go into those quiet looking cottages one by one and you will soon be undeceived learn the inner history of each family and you will soon alter your mind you will soon discover that backbiting and lying and slandering and envy and jealousy and pride and laziness and drinking and extravagance and lust and petty quarrels can murder happiness in the country quite as much as in the town no doubt a rural village sounds pretty in poetry and looks beautiful in pictures but in sober reality human nature is the same evil thing everywhere alas it needs something more than a residence in a quiet country parish to make any child of Adam a happy man I know these are ancient things they have been said a thousand times before without effect and I suppose they will be said without effect again I want no greater proof of the corruption of human nature personacity with which we seek happiness where happiness cannot be found century after century wise men have left on record their experience about the way to be happy century after century the children of men will have it that they know the way perfectly well and need no teaching they cast to the winds our warnings they rush everyone on his own favourite path they walk in a vain shadow and disquiet themselves in vain and wake up when too late to find their whole life has been a grand mistake their eyes are blinded they will not see that their visions are as baseless disappointing as the mirage of an African desert like the tired traveller in these deserts they think they are approaching a lake of cooling waters like the sane traveller they find to their dismay that this fancied lake was a splendid optical delusion that they are still helpless in the midst of burning sands are you a young person I entreat you to accept the affectionate warning of a minister of the gospel and not to seek happiness where happiness cannot be found seek it not in riches seek it not in power and rank seek it not in pleasure seek it not in learning these are bright and splendid fountains their waters taste sweet a crowd is standing round them which will not lead them but oh remember that God has written over each of these fountains he that drinker for this water shall first again John 4 13 remember this and be wise are you poor are you tempted to fancy that if you had the rich man's place you would be quite happy resist the temptation and cast it behind you envy not your wealthy neighbours be content with such things as you have happiness does not depend on houses or lands silks and satins cannot shut out sorrow from the heart castles and halls cannot prevent anxiety and care coming in at their doors there is as much misery riding and driving about in carriages as there is walking about on foot there is as much unhappiness in sealed houses as in humble cottages oh remember the mistakes which are common about happiness and be wise end of chapter 10 part 1 recording by roof chapter 10 part 2 of practical religion this is a libydox recording all libydox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libydox.org recording by roof chapter 10 part 2 happiness let me now in the last place point out the way to be really happy there is a sure path which leads to happiness it will only take it there never lived the person who travelled in that path and missed the object that he sought to attain it is a path open to all it needs neither wealth nor rank nor learning in order to walk in it it is for the servant as well as for the master it is for the poor as well as for the rich none are excluded it is the one only path all that have ever been happy since the days of Adam have journeyed on it there is no royal road to happiness kings must be content to go side by side with their humblest subjects if they would be happy where is this path where is this road listen and you shall hear the way to be happy is to be a real furrow going true hearted Christian scripture declares it experience proves it the converted man the believer in Christ the child of God he and he alone is the happy man it sounds too simple to be true it seems at first sight so plain a receipt that it is not believed but the greatest true so often the simplest the secret which many of the wisest on earth have utterly failed to discover is revealed to the humblest believer in Christ I repeat it deliberately and defy the world to disprove it the true Christian is the only happy man what do I mean when I speak of a true Christian do I mean everybody who goes to church or chapel do I mean everybody who professes an orthodox creed and bows his head at the belief do I mean everybody who professes to love the gospel no indeed I mean something very different all are not Christians who are called Christians the man I have in view is the Christian in heart and life he who has been taught by the spirit really to fill his sins he who really rests all his hopes in the Lord Jesus Christ in his atonement he who has been born again and really lives a spiritual holy life he whose religion is not a mere Sunday coat but a mighty constraining principle governing every day of his life he is the man I mean when I speak of a true Christian what do I mean when I say the true Christian is happy has he no doubts and no fears has he no anxieties and no troubles has he no sorrows and no cares does he never feel pain tears far be it from me to say anything of the kind he has a body weak and frail like other men he has affections and passions like every one born of woman he lives in a changeful world but deep down in his heart he has a minor solid peace and substantial joy which is never exhausted this is true happiness do I say that all two Christians are equally happy no not for a moment there are babes in Christ's family as well as old men there are weak members of the mystical body as well as strong ones there are tender lambs as well as sheep there are not only the cedars of Lebanon but the high sub that grows on the wall there are degrees of grace and degrees of faith those who have most faith and grace will have most happiness but all more or less compared to the children of the world are happy men do I say that real true Christians are equally happy at all times no not for a moment all have their ebbs and flows of comfort some like the Mediterranean Sea almost insensibly some like the tribe at Chepstow 50 or 60 feet at a time their bodily health is not always the same their earthly circumstances are not always the same the souls of those they love fill them at seasons with special anxiety they themselves are sometimes overtaken by a fault and walk in darkness they sometimes give way to inconsistencies and besetting sins and lose their sense of pardon but as a general rule the true Christian has a deep pool of peace within him which even at the lowest is never entirely dry footnote I use the words as a general rule advisedly when a believer falls into such a horrible sin as that of David it would be monstrous to talk of his feeling inward peace if a man professing to be a true Christian talk to me of being happy in such a case before giving any evidence of the deepest, most heart-abasing repentance I should feel great doubts whether he had any grace at all and a footnote the true Christian is the only happy man because his conscience is at peace that mysterious witness for God which is so mercifully placed within us is fully satisfied and at rest it sees in the blood of Christ a complete cleansing away of all its guilt it sees in the priesthood and mediation of Christ a complete answer to all its fears it sees that through the sacrifice and death of Christ God can now be just and yet be justified the ungodly it no longer bites and stings and makes its possessor afraid of himself the Lord Jesus Christ has amply met all its requirements conscience is no longer the enemy of the true Christian but his friend and advisor therefore he is happy the true Christian is the only happy man because he can sit down quietly and think about his soul he can look behind him and before him he can look within him and around him and feel all his well he can think calmly on his past life however many and great his sins take comfort in the thought that they are all forgiven the righteousness of Christ covers all as Noah's flood overtop the highest hills he can think calmly about things to come and yet not be afraid sickness is painful death is solemn the judgment day is an awful thing but having Christ for him he has nothing to fear he can think calmly about the Holy God whose eyes are on all his ways and feel he is my father my reconciled father in Christ Jesus I am weak I am unprofitable yet in Christ who regards me as his dear child and is well pleased oh what a blessed privilege it is to be able to think and not be afraid I can well understand the mournful complained to the prisoner in solitary confinement he had warmth and food and clothing and work but he was not happy and why? he said he was obliged to think the true Christian is the only happy man because he has sources of happiness entirely independent of this world he has something which cannot be affected by death by private losses and by public calamities the peace of God which pass of all understanding he has a hope laid up for him in heaven he has a treasure which moth and rust cannot corrupt he has a house which can never be taken down his loving wife may die and his heart feel rent entwined his darling children may be taken from him and he may be left alone in this cold world his earthly plans may be crossed his health may fail but all this time he had a portion which nothing can hurt he has one friend who never dies he has possessions beyond the grave of which nothing can deprive him his never springs may fail but his uppersprings are never dry this is real happiness the true Christian is happy because he is in his right position all the powers of his being are directed to right ends his affections are not set on things below but on things above his will is not bent on self indulgence but is submissive to the will of God his mind is not absorbed in wretched perishable trifles he desires useful employment he enjoys the luxury of doing good who does not know the misery of disorder who has not tasted the discomfort the last were everything and everybody are in their wrong places the last things thirst and the first things last the heart of an unconverted man is such a house grace puts everything in that heart in its rightful position the things of the soul come thirst and the things of the world come second anarchy and confusion cease unruly passions no longer do each one what is right in his eyes Christ reigns over the whole man and each part of him does his proper work the new heart is the only really light heart but is the only heart that is in order the true Christian has found out his place he has laid aside his pride and self will he sits at the feet of Jesus and is in his right mind he loves God and loves man and so he is happy in heaven all are happy because all do God's will perfectly the nearer a man gets to this standard the happier he will be the plain truth is that without Christ there is no happiness in this world he alone can give the comforter who abide forever he is the son without him men never feel warm he is the light without him men are always in the dark he is the bread without him men are always starving he is the living water without him men are always a first give them what you like place them where you please surround them with all the comforts you can imagine it makes no difference separate from Christ the prince of peace a man cannot be happy give a man a sensible interest in Christ he is happy in spite of poverty he will tell you that he wants nothing that is really good he is provided for he is riches in possession and riches in reversion he has meat to eat that the world knows not of he has friends who never leave him nor forsake him the father and the son come to him and make their abode with him the Lord Jesus Christ sops with him and he with Christ a relation free give a man a sensible interest in Christ and he will be happy in spite of sickness his flesh may groan and his body be worn out with pain but his heart will rest and be at peace one of the happiest people I ever saw was a young woman who had been hopelessly ill for many years with disease at the spine she lay in a garret without a fire the straw-fatch was not too thin to face she had not the slightest hope of recovery but she was always rejoicing in the Lord Jesus the spirit triumphed mightily over the flesh she was happy because Christ was with her footnote John Howard the famous Christian philanthropist in his last journey said I hope I have sources of enjoyment that depend not on the particular spot I inhabit a rightly cultivated bind under the power of religion and the exercises of benefit dispositions affords the ground to satisfaction little affected by hears and theirs end of footnote give a man a sensible interest in Christ and he will be happy in spite of a bounding public calamities the government of his country may be thrown into confusion rebellion and disorder may turn everything upside down laws may be trampled under foot justice and equity may be outraged liberty may be cast down to the ground might may prevail over right but still his heart will not fail he will remember that the kingdom of Christ will one day be set up he will say like the old Scotch minister who lived on mood for the turmoil of the first French Revolution it is all right and the righteous I know well that Satan hates the doctrine which I am endeavouring to press upon you I have no doubt he is filling your mind of objections and reasonings and persuading you that I am wrong I am not afraid to meet these objections face to face let us bring them forward and see what they are you may tell me that you know many very religious people who are not happy at all they are diligent in attending public worship you know that they are never missing the sacrament of the Lord Supper but you see in them no marks of the peace which I have been describing but are you sure that these people you speak of are true believers in Christ are you sure that with all their appearance of religion they are born again and converted to God is it not very likely that they have nothing but the name of Christianity without the Christianity and a form of godliness without the power alas you have yet to learn that people may do many religious acts and yet possess no saving religion it is not a mere formal ceremonial Christianity that will ever make people happy we want something more than going to church and going to sacraments to give us peace there must be real vital union with Christ it is not the formal Christian but the true Christian that is the happy man you may tell me that you know really spiritually minded and converted people who do not seem happy you have heard them frequently complaining of their own hearts and groaning over their own corruption they seem to you all doubts and anxieties and fears and you want to know where is the happiness in those people of which I have been saying so much I do not deny that there are many saints of God such as these whom you describe and I am sorry for it I allow that there are many believers who live far below their privileges and seem to know nothing of joy and peace in believing but did you ever ask any of these people whether they will give up the position in religion they have reached and go back to the world did you ever ask them after all their groanings and doubtings and fearings whether they think they will be happier after Christ did you ever ask these questions I am certain if you did that the weakest and lowest believers would all give you one answer I am certain they would tell you that they would rather cling to their little scrap of hope in Christ than possess the world I am sure they would all answer our faith is weak if we have any our grace is small if we have any our joy in Christ is next to nothing at all but we cannot give up what we have got though the Lord slay us we must cling to Him the root of happiness lies deep in many a poor weak believers heart when neither leaves nor blossoms are to be seen but you will tell me in the last place that you cannot think most believers are happy because they are so grave and serious you think that they do not really possess this happiness I have been describing that you do not show it you doubt the reality of their joy because it is so little seen I might easily repeat what I told you at the beginning of this paper that a merry face is no sure proof of a happy heart but I will not do so I will rather ask you whether you yourself may not be the cause why believers look grave and serious when you meet them if you are not converted yourself you surely cannot expect them but you are without sorrow they see you on the high road to destruction and that alone is enough to give them pain they see thousands like you hoeing on to weeping and wailing and endless woe now is it possible that such a daily sight should not give them grief your company very likely is one cause why they are grave wait till you are a converted man yourself before you pass judgment on the gravity of converted people see them in companies where all are of one heart and all of Christ and so far as my own experience goes you will find no people so truly happy as true Christian footnote when the infidel Hume asked Bishop Horne why religious people always looked melancholy the learned prelate replied the sight of you Mr Hume would make any Christian melancholy Sinclair's aporisms page 13 end of footnote I repeat my assertion in this part of my subject I repeat it boldly confidently deliberately I say there is no true happiness among men that all and all compare with that of the true Christian all of a happiness by the side of his is moonlight compared to sunshine and brass by the side of gold boast if you will of the laughter and merriment of irreligious men sneer if you will of the gravity and seriousness which appear in the demeanour of many Christians I have looked the whole subject in the face and I am not moved I say that the true Christian alone is the truly happy man and the way to be happy is to be a true Christian and now I am going to close this paper by a few words a plain application I have endeavoured to show what is essential to true happiness I have endeavoured to expose the fallacy of many views which prevail upon the subject I have endeavoured to point out in plain and unmistakable words where true happiness alone can be found suffering me to wind up all by an affectionate appeal to the consciences of all into whose hands this volume may fall one place let me entreat every reader of this paper to apply to his own heart the solemn inquiry are you happy high or low rich or poor master or servant farmer or labourer young or old here is a question that deserves an answer are you really happy man of the world who are caring for nothing but the things of time valuable making a guard of business or money providing for everything but the day of judgment scheming and planning about everything but eternity are you happy you know you are not foolish woman who are trifling knife away in levity and fovevality spending hours after hours in that poor frail body which must soon feed the worms making an idol of dress excitement and human praise as if this world was all are you happy you know you are not young man who are bent on pleasure and self indulgence fluttering from one idle pastime to another like the moth about the candle fancying yourself clever and knowing and too wise to be led by Parsons an ignorant that the devil is leading you captive like the ox that is led to the slaughter are you happy you know you are not yes each and all of you are not happy and in your own consciences you know it well you may not allow it but it is sadly true there is a great empty place in each of your hearts and nothing will fill it pour into it money learning rank and pleasure and it will be empty still there is a sore place in each of your consciences that you will heal it infidelity cannot free thinking cannot romanism cannot they are all quack medicines nothing can heal it but that which at present you have not used the simple gospel of Christ yes you are indeed a miserable people take warning this day that you never will be happy till you are converted you might as well expect to feel the sunshine on your face and turn your back to it as to feel happy when you turn your back on God and on Christ 2 in the next place let me warn all who are not true Christians of the folly of living a life which cannot make them happy I pity you from the bottom of my heart I would fame persuade you to open your eyes and be wise I stand as a watchman on the tower of the everlasting gospel I see you sowing misery for yourself and I call upon you to stop and think before it is too late oh that God may show you your folly you are hewing out of yourself systems broken systems which can hold no water you are spending your time and strength and affections and that which will give you no return for your labour spending your money on that which is not bread and your labour for that which satisfy have not Isaiah 55 2 you are building up bables of your own contriving and ignorant the God will pour contempt on your schemes of procuring happiness because you attempt to be happy without him I wait from your dreams I entreat you and show yourself as men think of the uselessness of living a life which you will be ashamed of when you die and of having a mere nominal religion which will just fail you when it is most wanted open your eyes and look around the world tell me who was ever really happy without God and Christ and the Holy Spirit look at the road in which you are travelling mark the footsteps of those who have gone before you see how many have turned away from it and confessed they were wrong I warn you plainly that if you are not a true Christian you will miss happiness in the world that now is as well as in the world to come oh believe me your salvation are one and the same he that will have his own way and refuses to serve Christ will never be really happy but he that serves Christ has the promise of both lives he is happy on earth and will be happier still in heaven if you are neither happy in this world nor the next it will be all your own fault oh think of this do not be guilty of such enormous folly who does not mourn over the folly of the drunkard the opium eater and the suicide there is no folly like that of the impenitent child of the world free in the next place let me entreat all readers of this book who are not yet happy to seek happiness where alone it can be found the keys of the way to happiness are in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ he is sealed and appointed by God the Father the bread of life to them that hunger and to give the water of life to them that are first the door which riches and rank and learning have so often tried to open and tried in vain is now ready to open to every humble praying believer oh if you want to be happy come to Christ come to him confessing that you are weary of your own ways and want rest that you find you have no power and might to make yourself holy or happy come to him and have no hope but in him tell him this unreservedly this is coming to Christ come to him employing him to show you his mercy and grant you his salvation to wash you in his own blood and take your sins away to speak peace to your conscience and heal your troubled soul tell him all this unreservedly this is coming to Christ you have everything to encourage you the Lord Jesus himself invites you he proclaims to you as well as to others come on to me all ye that labour and are heavy laden now give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn of me find meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light Matthew 11 28 to 30 wait for nothing you may feel unworthy you may feel as if you did not repent enough but wait no longer come to Christ you have everything to encourage you thousands of walked in the way you are invited to enter and have found it good once like yourself they serve the world and plunge deeply into folly and sin once like yourself they became weary of their wickedness and longed for deliverance and rest be heard of Christ and blessed to help and save they came to him by faith and prayer after many a doubt and hesitation they found him a thousand times more gracious than they had expected they rested on him and were happy they carried his cross and toasted peace they walk in their steps I beseech you by the mercies of God to come to Christ as ever you would be happy I entreat you to come to Christ cast off delays awake from your past slumber arise and be free this day come to Christ 4 in the last place let me offer a few hints to all true Christians for the increase in promotion of their happiness I offer these hints of diffidence I desire to apply them to my own conscience as well as to yours you have found Christ's service happy I have no doubt that you feel such sweetness in Christ's peace that you would frame no more of it I am sure that these hints deserve attention believe us if you would have an increase of happiness in Christ's service labour every year to grow in grace beware a standing still that holiest men are always the happiest let your aim be every year to be more holy to know more to feel more to see more of the fullness of Christ rest not upon old grace do not be content with the degree of religion where onto you have attained search the scriptures more earnestly pray more fervently hate sin more mortify self-will more become more humble the nearer you draw to your end seek more direct personal communion with the Lord Jesus strive to be more like Enoch daily walking with God keep your conscience clear of little sins grieve not the spirit avoid wranglings and disputes about the lesser matters of religion lay more firm hold upon those great truths without which no man can be saved remember and practice these things and you will be more happy believe us if you would have an increase of happiness in Christ's service labour every year to be more thankful pray that you may know more and more what it is to rejoice in the Lord Philippians 3 1 learn to have a deeper sense of your own wretched sinfulness and corruption and to be more deeply grateful that by the grace of God you are what you are alas there is too much complaining and too little thanksgiving among the people of God there is too much murmuring and pouring over the things that we have not there is too little praising and blessing for the many undeserved mercies that we have oh that God would pour out upon us the spirit of thankfulness and praise believe us if you would have an increase of happiness in Christ's service labour every year to do more good look around the circle in which your lot is cast and lay yourself out to be useful strive to be of the same character with God he is not only good but doeth good Psalm 119 68 alas there is far too much selfishness in the present day there is far too much lazy sitting by the fire nursing our own spiritual diseases and croaking over the state of our own hearts up and be useful in your day and generation is there no one in all the world that you can read to is there no one that you can speak to is there no one that you can write to is there literally nothing that you can do for the glory of God for the glory of your fellow men oh I cannot think it I cannot think it there is much that you might do if you had only the will for your own happiness sake arise and do it without delay the bold out speaking working Christians are always the happiest the more you do for God the more God would do for you the compromising lingering Christian must never expect perfect peace the most decided Christian will always be the happiest man end of chapter 10 part 2 recording by Ruth