'Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is
heaviness.'--PROVERBS xiv. 13.
'These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy may be in you, and
that your joy may be fulfilled.'--JOHN xv. 11 (R.V.).
A poet, who used to be more fashionable than he is now, pronounces
'happiness' to be our being's end and aim. That is not true, except
under great limitations and with many explanations. It may be regarded
as God's end, but it is ruinous to make it man's aim. It is by no
means the highest conception of the Gospel to say that it makes men
happy, however true it may be. The highest is that it makes them good.
I put these two texts together, not only because they bring out the
contrast between the laughter which is hollow and fleeting and the joy
which is perfect and perpetual, but also because they suggest to us
the difference in kind and object between earthly and heavenly joys;
which difference underlies the other between the boisterous laughter
in which is no mirth and no continuance and the joy which is deep and
abiding.
In the comparison which I desire to make between these two texts we
must begin with that which is deepest, and consider--