It lay partly in the bearing fruit,
partly in the fellowship which made that possible. Partly, that
is to say, Joy lay in mere constant living in Christ's presence,
with all that that implied of peace, of shelter, and of love;
partly in the influence of that Life upon mind and character and
will; and partly in the inspiration to live and work for others,
with all that that brought of self-riddance and joy in others'
gain. All these, in different ways and at different times, are
Sources of pure happiness.
Even the simplest of them--to do good to other people--is an instant
and infallible specific. There is no mystery about Happiness
whatever. Put in the right ingredients and it must come out. He
that abideth in Him will bring forth much fruit; and bringing forth
much fruit is Happiness. The infallible receipt for Happiness,
then, is to do good; and the infallible receipt for doing good
is to abide in Christ. The surest proof that all this is a plain
matter of Cause and Effect is that men may try every other conceivable
way of finding happiness, and they will fail. Only the right cause
in each case can produce the right effect.
Then the Christian experiences are our own making? In the same
sense in which grapes are our own making and no more.
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