September 12, 1898

“The Joy of the Lord” The Bible Echo 13, 37, pp. 289, 290.

ATJ

“THE joy of the Lord is your strength.”BEST September 12, 1898, page 289.1

Did you know that there is real reviving strength in the joy of the Lord? It is really so, as every one can certify from experience, who knows the joy of the Lord. How could it be otherwise? Is there not reviving and strength in mere human joy? How much more, then, in divine joy,—in joy that is the Lord’s, and that comes direct from him to the believer!BEST September 12, 1898, page 289.2

When a person is worn, and weary, and ready to faint, and just then receives a bit of joyful news, is not all his thought of faintness at once dissipated by the joy? and is not all his weariness supplanted by freshness and strength, which the joy has brought?BEST September 12, 1898, page 289.3

And when that is true in affairs altogether human, how much more must it be true in affairs divine! It is so, as every one knows who know the joy of the Lord.BEST September 12, 1898, page 289.4

But how shall we be partakers of the joy of the Lord? The joy of the Lord in human life is the fruit of the Spirit of God. “The fruit of the Spirit is ... joy.” And we can not have the fruit without the root. “The kingdom of God is ... joy in the Holy Ghost;” and “the kingdom of God is within you.” Therefore, the joy of the Lord in human life is only by the Holy Ghost. And “the joy of the Lord is your strength.”BEST September 12, 1898, page 289.5

Is the joy of the Lord your strength? Are you worn, and weary, and ready to faint? “The joy of the Lord is your strength;” and this comes only by the Holy Spirit. Have you received the Holy Ghost? “Ask, and it shall be given you.” “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”BEST September 12, 1898, page 292.1

A. T. JONES.