'Unspeakable,' and, as the word ought to be rendered, not 'full of
glory' but 'glorified.' Unspeakable. Still waters run deep. It is poor
wealth that can be counted; it is shallow emotion that can be crammed
into the narrow limits of any human vocabulary. Fathers and mothers,
parents and children, husbands and wives, know that. And the depths of
the joy that a believing soul has in Jesus Christ are not to be spoken.
Perhaps it is better that it should not be attempted to speak them.
'Not easily forgiven
Are those, who, setting wide the doors that bar
The secret bridal chambers of the heart,
Let in the day.'
It is in shallow streams that the sunlight gleams on the pebbles at the
bottom. The abysses of ocean are dark, and have never been searched by
its light. I suspect the depth of the emotion which bubbles over into
words, and finds no difficulty in expressing itself. The joy which can
be manifested in all its extent has a very small extent. Christian joy
is unspeakable, too, because just as you cannot teach a blind man what
colour is like, and cannot impart to anybody the blessedness of wedded
love, or parental affection, by ever so much talking--and, therefore,
the poetry of the world is never exhausted--so there is only one way of
conveying to a man what is the actual joy of trusting in Christ, and
that is, that he himself should trust Him. We may talk till Doomsday,
and then, as the Queen of Sheba said, when she came to Solomon, 'the
half hath not been told.'
'He must be loved ere that to you
He will seem worthy of your love.'
It is unspeakable gladness springing from the possession of an
unspeakable gift.
'Glorified.' There is nothing more ignoble than the ordinary joys of
men. They are too often like the iridescent scum on a stagnant pond,
fruit and proof of corruption. They are fragile and hollow, for all the
play of colour on them, like a soap bubble that breaks of its own
tenuity, and is only a drop of dirty water. Joy is too often ignoble,
and yet, although it is by no means the highest conception of what
Christ's Gospel can do for us, it is blessed to think that it can take
that emotion, so often shameful, so often frivolous, so often lowering
rather than elevating, and can lift it into loftiness, and transfigure
it, and glorify it and make it a power, a power for good and for
righteousness, and for 'whatsoever things are lovely and of good report'
in our lives. And that is what trusting towards Christ will do for our
gladnesses.
Lastly, in one word, let me lay upon your consciences, as Christian
people