UNION OF SERIOUS PIETY WITH HABITUAL CHEERFULNESS.
It is a mistake often made by young people, to associate religion
with a downcast look, a sad countenance, and an aching heart. Perhaps
the mistakes of some good people, in putting on a grave and severe
aspect, approaching even to moroseness, may have given some occasion
for this sentiment. I do not know, indeed, how prevalent the sentiment
is among the young. I can hardly think it is common with those who
are religiously educated. As for myself, I well remember that, in
my childhood, I thought true Christians must be the happiest people
in the world. There is no doubt, however, that many pleasure-loving
young people do look upon religion with that peculiar kind of dread
which they feel of the presence of a grave, severe maiden aunt, which
would spoil all their pleasure. And, I do not deny, that there are
certain kinds of pleasure which religion spoils; but then it first
removes the taste and desire for them, after which the spoliation is
nothing to be lamented. It is true, also, that there are some things in
religion which are painful. Repentance for sin is a painful exercise;
self-denial is painful; the resistance of temptation is sometimes
trying; and the subduing of evil dispositions is a difficult work.
But, to endure whatever of suffering there is in these things, is a
saving in the end. It is less painful than the tortures of a guilty
conscience, the gnawings of remorse, and the fear of hell. It is easier
to be endured than the consequences of neglecting religion. If you get
a sliver in your finger, it is easier to bear the pain of having it
removed, than it is to carry it about with you. If you have a decayed
tooth, it is easier to have it extracted than to bear the toothache. So
it is easier to repent of sin than to bear remorse and fear. And the
labor of resisting temptation, and of restraining and subduing evil
dispositions, is not so great an interference with one’s happiness as
it is to carry about a guilty conscience.
There is, however, nothing in true piety inconsistent with habitual
cheerfulness. There is a difference between cheerfulness and levity.
Cheerfulness is serene and peaceful. Levity is light and trifling. The
former promotes evenness of temper and equanimity of enjoyment; the
latter drowns sorrow and pain for a short time, only to have it return
again with redoubled power.
The Christian hope, and the promises and consolations of God’s word,
furnish the only true ground of cheerfulness. Who should be cheerful
and happy, if not one who is delivered from the terrors of hell and the
fear of death,--who is raised to the dignity of a child of God,--who
has the hope of eternal life--the prospect of dwelling forever in the
presence of God, in the society of the blessed, and in the enjoyment
of perfect felicity? But no one would associate these things with that
peculiar kind of mirth, which is the delight of the pleasure-loving
world. Your sense of propriety recoils from the idea of associating
things of such high import with rudeness, frolicking, and mirth. Yet
there is an innocent gayety of spirits, arising from natural vivacity,
especially in the period of childhood and youth, the indulgence of
which, within proper bounds, religion does not forbid.
There is a happy medium between a settled, severe gravity and gloom,
and frivolity, levity, and mirth, which young Christians should strive
to cultivate. If you give unbounded license to a mirthful spirit,
and indulge freely in all manner of levity, frivolity, and foolish
jesting, you cannot maintain that devout state of heart which is
essential to true piety. On the other hand, if you studiously repress
the natural vivacity of youthful feeling, and cultivate a romantic kind
of melancholy, or a severe gravity, you will destroy the elasticity
of your spirits, injure your health, and very likely become peevish
and irritable, and of a sour, morose temper; and this will be quite
as injurious to true religious feeling as the other. The true medium
is, to unite serious piety with habitual cheerfulness. Always bring
Christian motives to bear upon your feelings. The gospel of Jesus
Christ has a remedy for every thing in life that is calculated to make
us gloomy and sad. It offers the pardon of sin to the penitent and
believing, the aid of grace to those that struggle against an evil
disposition, and succor and help against temptation. It promises to
relieve the believer from fear, and afford consolation in affliction.
There is no reason why a true Christian should not be cheerful. There
are, indeed, many things, which he sees, within and without, that must
give him pain. But there is that in his Christian hope, and in the
considerations brought to his mind from the Word of God, which is able
to bear him high above them all.
Let me, then, earnestly recommend you to cultivate a serious but
cheerful piety. Let your religion be neither of that spurious kind
which expends itself in sighs, and tears, and gloomy feelings, nor that
which makes you insensible to all feeling. But while you are alive to
your own sins and imperfections, exercising godly sorrow for them,
and while you feel a deep and earnest sympathy for those who have no
interest in Christ, let your faith in the atoning blood of Jesus, and
your confidence in God, avail to keep you from sinking into melancholy
and gloom, and make you cheerful and happy, while you rest in God.
And now, gentle reader, after this long conversation, I must take leave
of you, commending you to God, with the prayer that my book may be
useful to you, in the formation of a well-balanced Christian character;
and that, after you and I shall have done the errand for which the Lord
sent us into the world, we may meet in heaven. GOD BLESS YOU!
* * * * *
Transcriber’s note:
--Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.
--Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
--Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.
--The Chapter XXII title in the Table of Contents was adjusted to
reflect the title within the contents.