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June 14
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The teaching of
these words must seem very surprising to those who are strangers to
vital godliness, but to the sincere believer it is only the inculcation
of a recognized truth. The life of the believer is here described as
a delight in God, and we are thus certified of the great fact that true
religion overflows with happiness and joy. Ungodly persons and mere
professors never look upon religion as a joyful thing; to them it is
service, duty, or necessity, but never pleasure or delight. If they
attend to religion at all, it is either that they may gain thereby,
or else because they dare not do otherwise. The thought of delight in
religion is so strange to most men, that no two words in their language
stand further apart than "holiness" and "delight."
But believers who know Christ, understand that delight and faith are
so blessedly united, that the gates of hell cannot prevail to separate
them. They who love God with all their hearts, find that His ways are
ways of pleasantness, and all His paths are peace. Such joys, such brimful
delights, such overflowing blessednesses, do the saints discover in
their Lord, that so far from serving Him from custom, they would follow
Him though all the world cast out His name as evil. We fear not God
because of any compulsion; our faith is no fetter, our profession is
no bondage, we are not dragged to holiness, nor driven to duty. No,
our piety is our pleasure, our hope is our happiness, our duty is our
delight. Delight and true religion are as allied as root and flower; as indivisible as truth and certainty; they are, in fact, two precious jewels glittering side by side in a setting of gold. June
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