JEALOUSY – ENVY
Eve was so jealous of Adam that when he came home each night she used to count his ribs.
—Rolling in the Aisles
JOY
Always remember to forget the things that made you sad; but never forget to remember the things that made you glad.
—Elbert Hubbard
Charles M. Alexander tells that as a student at the Moody Bible Institute he often wondered how earnest Christians could be so lighthearted. One day when Mr. Moody gathered the students around him for a confidential talk, he noticed that some were wearing exceptionally long faces. Mr. Alexander says, “I was one of them, for I had been studying that sentence in the New Testament which says that for every idle word we shall have to give an account. I was naturally of a lively disposition and always sought to cheer those who were downhearted. But now I thought I had been wrong. Therefore I tried to control my face so that no smile would ever come upon it. That morning Mr. Moody spoke about Matthew 12:36. Looking up with a joyous countenance, he said, ‘Young men, do not think this verse means that you shall go around with a long face and never express any happy sentiments. Remember, a cheerful word is not an idle one.’ ”
Joy is the gigantic secret of the Christian.
—G. K. Chesterton
Many years ago a great earthquake did considerable damage in San Francisco, California. Many buildings were wrecked by the quake and others through fire started by the earth tremors. In the midst of this great tragedy an elderly grandmother was observed sitting in her rocking chair on her front lawn and singing. A passerby asked her how she could be so happy when the earth was cracking up. Her reply was, “I’m rejoicing to see how my God can change things.”
—Theodore H. Epp
The best way to cheer yourself up is to cheer someone else up.
—Mark Twain
The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said scornfully about Christians of his day, “I would believe in their salvation if they looked a little more like people who have been saved.”
Martin Luther in his later years was gloomy. One day his wife came into his study dressed in black. Martin asked, “Who’s dead?” She said, “God is.” Martin responded, “My soul, why should you talk like that?” She said, “Because of your gloom.”
Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness and its power of endurance. The cheerful man will do more in the same time, will do it better, and will persevere in it longer, than the sad or sullen.
—Thomas Carlyle
Joy is not the absence of trouble but the presence of Christ.
—William Vander Haven
Joseph Haydn, the great musician, was once asked why his church music was so cheerful, and he replied, “When I think upon God, my heart is so full of joy that the notes dance and leap, as it were, from my pen, and since God has given me a cheerful heart it will be pardoned me that I serve Him with a cheerful spirit.”
Shared joy is double joy and shared sorrow is half-sorrow.
A. G. Swinburne, English poet and critic (1837–1909), pictured Christ as a pale Galilean “who made the world grow gray at His breath.” Such a description of Jesus Christ is reprehensible and diabolically false.
Christianity is the most encouraging, the most joyous, the least repressive of all the religions of mankind. While it has its sorrows and stern disciplines, the end of it is a resurrection, not a burial—a festival, not a funeral.
—L. P. Jacks
The New Testament is the happiest thing in literature, with the sound of singing in it everywhere, opening with the choir of angels over Bethlehem and closing with the Hallelujah Chorus of the redeemed.
—Arthur Gossip
The late Gypsy Smith used to say that you could not get a “hallelujah” out of some Christians if you squeezed them through a wringer.
The flag flown from the castle of the heart is to show that the King is in residence there.
Now since I have been converted, I am happier when I am unhappy than I was happy before I was converted.
—John McNeil
The religion that makes a man look sick certainly won’t cure the world.
—Phillips Brooks
There are two kinds of people—those who cause happiness wherever they go and those who cause happiness whenever they go.
It’s easy enough to be pleasant
When life flows by like a song,
But the man worthwhile
Is the man who can smile,
When everything goes dead wrong.
Oh, God, thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts find no rest until they rest in Thee.
—Augustine
Joy is not a luxury or a mere accessory in the Christian life. It is the sign that we are really living in God’s wonderful love, and that love satisfies us.
—Andrew Murray
JUDGMENT
A woman once said to a French Cardinal, “My Lord Cardinal, God does not pay at the end of every week; nevertheless He pays.”
Once a young man was drowning. He cried for help and a man passing by the water jumped in and saved the fellow from death. Several years later this same young man had fallen into sin. He had stolen a car and was brought into court.
He was greatly relieved to see the man who saved him from a watery grave sitting as a judge on the bench. “He will save me again, I am sure,” he thought.
The trial came to an end and the judge in giving the verdict said, “You are guilty and I must condemn you.”
“Oh, but you were the one who saved my life before.”
“Young man, one day I was your savior, but now I am your judge. Your day of grace has come to an end.”
JUSTICE
In the famous Un-American Activities trial of the Rosenbergs of 1952, they said to the court, “Give us justice. That’s all we ask for. That’s what we’re after.” The court said, “No, what you’re after is mercy. But this court can’t give mercy—only justice. And what you’ve got is justice.”
In the Supreme Court Building in Switzerland is a huge painting by Paul Robert. When he was asked to paint this tremendous mural on the stairway leading up to the Supreme Court offices, he expressed in painting what Samuel Rutherford placed in magnificent words. The title of the painting is Justice Instructing the Judges. In the foreground are all forms of litigation—the wife against the husband, the architect against the builder, and others. Above them stand the Swiss judges. How will they judge the litigation? Robert’s answer is this: Justice (no longer blindfolded with her sword vertical as is common) is unblindfolded with her sword pointing downward to a book on which is written “The Word of God.”
JUSTIFICATION
After Charles H. Spurgeon had finished preaching a sermon on justification by grace, a man came to him and said, “Oh, sir, I have been praying and I do not think God will forgive me unless I do something to deserve it.” Spurgeon replied, “I tell you, sir, if you bring any of your deservings, you shall never have it. God gives away His justification freely; and if you bring anything to pay for it, He will throw it in your face and will not give His justification to you.”
A Jewish soldier named Alfred Dreyfus showed such marked ability that in 1891 he was appointed to the general staff of the French Army. Three years later he was arrested, being charged with selling military information to Germany. His trial resulted in dismissal from the army, public degradation, and commitment to the French penal colony on Devil’s Island. Due to popular demand Dreyfus was retried in 1899, but was again declared guilty. Because of public dissatisfaction with the result of the trial the president of France pardoned Dreyfus. But the friends of Dreyfus were not satisfied with a mere pardon and in 1906 in a third trial Dreyfus was completely vindicated. He was given the more advanced rank of major and enrolled in the Legion of Honor.
When Alfred Dreyfus was pardoned after the second trial the penalty of the crime of which he was accused was remitted. He was taken from the penal colony on Devil’s Island. He came back to his family and friends, but the stigma of being a traitor still rested on him. But when through the third trial he became vindicated and was promoted to the rank of major and enrolled in the Legion of Honor, he was justified before the whole world. He had a standing of perfect righteousness and was given recognition that comes only to those who have served and brought honor to their country.
This is exactly what happens when God justifies the one who believes in Jesus.
Not on my guilty head
The wrath of God shall fall—
The Lamb has suffered in my stead;
His blood atones for all.
I seek no other way—
My soul is satisfied,
To know that God forgives today,
Because my Savior died.
JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
The place to stop crime is at the high chair and not the electric chair.
—Judge Jonah J. Goldstein
A Harvard University survey shows:
Six out of every ten juvenile delinquents have fathers who drink to excess. Also many of their mothers drink to excess.
Three out of four are permitted by parents to come and go as they please.
Three out of five are from homes where there is discord between parents.
Seven out of ten are from homes where there is no group or family recreation.
Four out of five have parents who take no interest in their children’s friends.
Four out of five delinquent boys say their mother was indifferent to them.
Three out of five delinquent boys say their father was indifferent to them.