Does God want us to be happy?

He also pours on a "drink offering," This was of wine "which makes glad the heart of man," "which cheers God and man." (Ex. 29:40; Psalm 104:15; Judges 9:13.) It is a symbol of joy; and it is associated with all the offerings, except the sin and trespass offerings: there could be nothing of joy connected with these to anyone. But with the other aspects of Christ's life and death, God has appointed that our happiness shall be mingled. The monkish idea that devotion is a gloomy and painful exercise is not divine; it is devilish. Yet it is an idea that, containing as it does a gross slander upon God and godliness, many excellent persons have done much to encourage and perpetuate. There is no human soul that has not been hindered by harbouring this slander. Not only where men have transformed cruelty into Deity, as where Moloch lapped the blood of human sacrifices, or where Kalee decorates herself with corpses for earrings, or Juggernaut crushes the bones of his victims; nor where Simon Stylites wasted on his pillar; nor where devout men like St. Anthony preferred such means of grace as dirt and horsehair, or where in the "cave, Honorius lone did dwell, In hope of gaining heaven by making earth a hell," — but wherever there lurks in our foolish hearts the wicked thought that God can take any pleasure in our suffering — is this lesson needed, that God wants us to be happy and tells us where happiness is to be found. The philosophers can tell us where it is not to be found, and that is all. "Happiness does not consist in strength," says Epictetus, "for Myro and Ofellius were miserable; nor in riches, for Croesus was unhappy; nor in power, for the Consuls were never satisfied; nor in all these things combined, for Nero, Sardanapalus, and Agamemnon raved and tore their hair." But we know where it is to be found. "The kingdom of God is … righteousness, peace, and joy." "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, …" The desire of the Son is "that your joy may be full."

We like our own children to be happy. We love to see the smile on their faces, and to hear the music of their song. God does the same. He has given us a relationship with Himself that is inviolable, and He would have us enjoy it. He would have us walk in the light of His presence, and the purity of His company, so that our salvation might be a thing seen by others—one of immense value to ourselves, and one we would fain make known on all hands.

This is the thought of God concerning us; He will have us before Him, and have us happy there, and for Himself. There is but one only sense in which God cannot suffice to Himself, that is, in His love; His love needs other beings besides Himself to render them happy. He will render others happy. He will have before Him beings who respond to what He is.

Now then, what is the consequence of this? "That your joy may be full." (v. 4.) Why is there so little joy amongst Christians? I often ask, "Why are we not brimming over with joy?" People think they must wait till they get to heaven. The psalmist could say, or rather the Holy Ghost prophetically speaking the language of the Lord Jesus, the perfectly dependent Man: "In thy presence is fulness of joy." We should live in the presence of God now, always near God, and joy would be the effect; that is now. "And at thy right hand pleasures for evermore;" that is by-and-by, when the Lord comes back. God would have us full of joy. "That your joy may be full." What is the hindrance? It is because we don't know Him that is from the beginning. What characterizes the "fathers" is that they know Him that is from the beginning. Paul says, "That I may know Him." We know something about Him; can we say, "We know Him"? The Lord give us to know Him more who is from the beginning, to know that He is our eternal life, and to know ever deepening "fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ," and thus we shall be full of divine joy. H. M. H.

8 There is only one thing in which God does not suffice for Himself, and that is, in His love. His love has need of other beings beside Himself, in order to make them happy. He desires to have before Him beings in harmony with what He is, and He sets us before Him "holy and without blame." This is what He is Himself, He who is the Holy One, He who certainly is without blame; for it is impossible to find any fault in Him. He calls Himself the Holy One; He is love Well; He sets us holy and without blame before Him in love Precious and most important thought for us! He has resolved that the church should be such that He could take delight in her, and behold in her before Him the reproduction of Himself, the most perfect happiness possible. He sets before Him beings like to Himself in order to make them as happy as it is possible; He communicates to us His nature, and takes His delight in us. In order for that, He makes us "holy and without blame in love"; and these things are accomplished here below by the Spirit, though the effects are not fully shewn till above in the place of perfectness. So, where is our place even now below? Before Him; and this place is not a joy only, but the most precious thing that can be imagined, to be before Him!

Forgiving is not all the gospel told out, nor should it be all for us to know or make known sin's remission. Salvation is immensely misunderstood when it is only held to mean that we are pardoned. God's object is not, nor could be, less than to bring us to the knowledge of the Father and the Son, into the joy and liberty of grace now, while we wait for the glory of God in the hope of which we exult. In this knowledge of our God and Father lies the most effectual power against the worldly snares that encumber us on every side. It is never the gospel order to make us holy in order to be happy before God; an effort that is often made, but always made in vain. In order to be holy in practice, grace makes you happy first. He Who alone was the Holy One died for you in your unholiness and evil, in order to give you peace and joy in believing. By His death Christ deserved it for you, and the grace of God righteously blesses you in the faith of Him. This is exactly in unison with God's heart, mind and word; for His word was written for us that we, believing, might share His joy in love.

But there is a danger kindred to highmindedness which is next warned against: "nor set their hope on uncertainty of riches." On this too many a philosopher of old moralized in vain: not that his words did not sound wise and grand, but that their effect was powerless; for he was either a selfish hypocrite who decried wealth in others to get it for himself as much as possible, or he denounced wealth with a cynical haughtiness of mind more extreme than in any man of wealth. Well then does the apostle first warn against highmindedness, and next on building one's hopes on the stability of what so quickly takes wings and flies away, whence the possessor is so often summoned in the midst of his self-aggrandizing plans. "Uncertainty of riches" indeed: how true and expressive!

One is never quite right, however, without what is positive; and hence the apostle urges that those addressed should have their hope set, not on a foundation so sandy, "but on God That affordeth us all things richly for enjoyment." There cannot be conceived a sentence more completely condemning the spirit of asceticism, which is fairer in appearance than the love of ease and luxury. But they are only forms of selfishness, however opposed: neither savours of God, Who has not left Himself without witness of His goodness toward men, even among the heathen allowed to go on their own ways. Surely it is not less among His own family of grace, though He may for higher ends give them the fellowship of Christ's sufferings, being conformed unto His death. But He is none the less the God of all grace, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. And as to real superiority over all circumstances, where there was no wealth of the present age, who could testify better than the apostle? A prisoner in Rome, yet able to write thence, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am therein to be content. I know how to be abased, and know also how to abound: in everything and in all things I am initiated both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer want. I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me. … And my God shall fulfil every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:11-19). The ungrudging and bountiful Giver of all loves a heart that responds to His grace, as far from legality as from licence.

How different from this false notion is the way the Bible speaks of God. There we read that He does good and showers His blessings upon us, filling our hearts with food and gladness (Acts 14:17). And it is undoubtedly His will that His children should enjoy those natural relationships that are His own ordination, if they are received with thanksgiving and sanctified by the Word of God and prayer (1 Timothy 4).

Holiness and happiness. "He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy" (Eph. 1:4). Mark, not because He foresaw that they would be of themselves holy, but that they should be holy; this was that God resolved He would make them to be. Consider it is not necessary that thou shouldst be rich; but it is necessary thou shouldst be holy, if thou meanest to be happy. You may travel to heaven with never a penny in your purse, but not without holiness in your heart and life also.

The new nature which God has given His children yearns after Himself, its Origin, its Strength, its Joy. In God's presence, delighting in His light and love, unclogged by worldly burdens, free from all hindrances to the full consciousness of who and what God is, the new nature has perfect pleasure. In creation, the happiness of the creature depends upon its life being in freedom, and vigorous. Certainly such is the case with the children of God. "The life of God," which they have, distinguishes their place in the new creation; and according to their freedom, in the presence of God their Father, is their joy. Life, under restraint, is ever burdensome: a child of God weighted with worldly cares, or half choked with worldly pleasures, is a contradiction of his new nature, and a denial of its yearnings.