September 14

Religion—doleful or delightful?

“Ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto” (Deut. 12:7).
“Alway rejoicing” (2 Cor. 6:10).

Some people think that there is no joy in religion—it is a gloomy thing. When a young person becomes a Christian, they would say, “Alas! he must bid farewell to pleasure—farewell to the joys of youth, farewell to a merry heart. He must exchange these pleasures for reading of the Bible and dry sermon books—for a life of gravity and preciseness.” This is what the world says. What does the Bible say? “I sat down under his shadow with great delight.” Ah! let God be true, and every man a liar. Yet no one can believe this except those who have tried it.


Ah! be not deceived, my young friends; the world has many sensual and many sinful delights—the delights of eating and drinking, and wearing gay clothes—the delights of revelry and the dance. No man of wisdom will deny that these things are delightful to the natural heart; but, oh! they perish in the using, and they end in an eternal hell. But to sit down under the shadow of Christ, wearied with God’s burning anger, wearied with seeking after vain saviors, at last to find rest under the shadow of Christ, ah! this is great delight. Lord, evermore may I sit under this shadow! Lord, evermore may I be filled with this joy!
Some people are afraid of anything like joy in religion. They have none themselves, and they do not love to see it in others. Their religion is something like the stars, very high, and very clear, and very cold. When they see tears of anxiety, or tears of joy, they cry out, “Enthusiasm, enthusiasm!” Well, then, to the law and to the testimony. “I sat down under his shadow with great delight.” Is this enthusiasm? O Lord, evermore give us this enthusiasm! May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing! If it be really in sitting under the shadow of Christ, let there be no bounds to your joy. Oh, if God would but open your eyes, and give you simple, childlike faith to look to Jesus, to sit under His shadow, then would songs of joy rise from all our dwellings. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice!
—Robert Murray McCheyne.

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