The Greater Joy by W. M. Punshon

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 24, 1872

The Greater Joy.

By W. M. Punshon

THERE was joy in the breast of the mathematician of Syracuse when, in the hearing of the wondering people, he thundered out his glad “Eureka,” and they deemed him mad; there was joy in the spirit of Columbus when the timid land birds sat upon the shrouds of his vessel, bearing upon their timid wings the welcome news of a new world; there is joy for the gold-finder when the rich ore glitters in the cradle; there is joy for the emigrant when he glimpses the home of his childhood again; there is joy for the child when he goes his wondering way into another and yet another secret of existence; there is joy for the poet when he sends a glad thought careering across the minds of men; but there is no joy so pure, so free, so unreserved, so satisfying, as when the glad disciple clasps his brother’s hand, and says: “We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.”

Brethren, do you know that joy? Do you remember when it first coursed through your veins? You remember how it made all creation become invested with a richer beauty; you remember how the music of the woods and of the waters was tuneful because the new song had been put into our own lips, even of praise and thanksgiving to God. But if there be any of you that know nothing about it, come to Jesus now. He waits to bestow it upon you; there is not one of you who need be away from it; there is no one of you who need live below this great inheritance.— W. M. Punshon.