Many of our earthly joys die in the very act of being enjoyed. Those
which depend on the gratification of some appetite expire in fruition,
and at each recurrence are less and less complete. The influence of
habit works in two ways to rob all such joys of their power to
minister to us--it increases the appetite and decreases the power of
the object to satisfy. Some are followed by swift revulsion and
remorse; all soon become stale; some are followed by quick remorse;
some are necessarily left behind as we go on in life. To the old man
the pleasures of youth are but like children's toys long since
outgrown and left behind. All are at the mercy of externals. Those
which we have not left we have to leave. The saddest lives are those
of pleasure-seekers, and the saddest deaths are those of the men who
sought for joy where it was not to be found, and sought for their
gratification in a world which leaves them, and which they have to
leave.
There is a realm where abide 'fullness of joy and pleasures for ever
more.' Surely they order their lives most wisely who look for their
joys to nothing that earth holds, and have taken for their own the
ancient vow: 'Though the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall
fruit be in the vine.... Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in
the God of my salvation.' If 'My joy' abides in us in its calm and
changeless depth, our joy will be 'full' whatever our circumstances
may be; and we shall hear at last the welcome: 'Enter thou into the
joy of thy Lord.'