The Grace of Gladness

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 31, 1874

The Grace of Gladness.

ONE spring of gladness is wholesome, noble work. No man is glad when living to himself. Man is made for the life of communion; the perfect form of human life was the life that found its blessedness in giving itself to mankind. There is physical gladness in the glory of a healthy body. That glow is the fruit of energetic action. Thus, sluggards, laggards, know nothing of the physical joy of life. Work for God, work for man, work that is twice blessed, which blesseth him that gives and him that takes, is the correspondent condition of a vigorous, glowing health in spiritual sphere. The old monks were glad because their lives were fruitful. I speak of their best days; they became the laziest and dreariest men in Christendom. But when the institution was young, they had work on hand which they believed they would rejoice in. They believed themselves the saviours of society; that by their toils, their prayers, they were helping it, beyond the power of kings and captains to help it; that their up-lifted hands kept Heaven's gates open; that their constant service was a Heaven's ladder by which angels of God descended upon the world.

Let loose the wings of your loving ministry; stir your soul to some work which shall scatter blessings. If you would taste joy, fresh and pure from its fountain, do good, be ready to communicate. It is this which makes the soul instinct with vigor; aglow with health, and radiant with joy; Man is a cripple, a half-developed being, until his unselfish ministry is drawn forth. When he has tasted the joy of doing good, he is like the lame after Peter's touch, he goes out into the great temple of life, walking and leaping and praising God. Try it! If life is sad, make it glad by service, service that strains your power, that a higher power only can make you strong enough to render. But here we touch that deep perennial fountain of gladness—the joy of the Holy Ghost. The joy of a man who believes that God is with him is exuberant, irrepressible. The delight of doing the will of God, to those who have tasted it, masters all other joy. “My meat and my drink is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish his work.”—London Congregationalist.