This is a day of making things. The wise man could have said of
things as he said of books, "Of the making of many things there is no
end."
Did you ever try to make joy? It is a big business. All the world is
trying to learn that trade. The world is richer than it has ever
been, that is because we have learned to make money. The world is
wiser than it has ever been; that is because we have learned to make
many books. The world at heart is sadder than it has ever been; that
is because it has never learned how to make JOY.
The joy the world knows is like the desert plant. It fastens its root
by the side of a little stream, and drinks in the moisture, and
spreads out its leaves of life. The stream is dried up at last by the
heat of the desert, and the roots loosen their hold on the soil, and
the windstorm rolls the plant over the desert like a dead leaf until
another piece of wet ground is found. There it fastens for another
short season, and again the sun dries up this spring of life, and
hurls the root on in the heart of the desert storm, This is repeated
over and over again until at last it tosses it out into the piercing
rays of the sun a withered dry old root dead at the heart. So men and
women are like this dry root. They absorb this pleasure and another
until at last, when old age finds them they are like the old dead
root east up by the winds of time. Dead in the inside. They never
found any joy to which they could anchor. They never knew where to
find real joy.
Look and listen--I will tell you where to find it. Secure three large
cardboards and paint on them the word "JOY." One letter on each card,
stand them up on a background where they can be seen by all present.
These letters spell the word "JOY." This is what all the world is
after. The first letter stands for Jesus. The middle letter a cipher
or "nothing." The last letter stands for You. Nothing between Jesus
and you. This is the way to bring real joy to the soul. Most of our
sorrows come from disobedience, and that means that something has
come between the J and Y that will never spell JOY.
Paint on a black card the letter S which stands for Sin. Hang this
card up in the place of O. J.S.Y. will never spell JOY. Sin keeps the
joy from passing from J to Y. Only a short time ago thousands watched
the eclipse of the sun. There was darkness at the last. In some of
the great cities the street lamps were lit because of the darkness
all around. It was because something had come between us and the sun.
It was the moon. It looked like a great O. It shut off the sunlight
for a little season. There was something between. Let nothing come
between you and Jesus and you will find "JOY." The O is a cipher
which means nothing. Nothing between J (Jesus) and Y (You). That
spells JOY. That is the big shop where joy is made.
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