joy looks very gloomy to a worldly eye.  But there are far more occasions which, if we were right, would make joy instinctive, and which, whether we are right or not, make it obligatory upon us.  I need not speak of how, if that hope were brighter than it commonly is with us, and if it were more constantly present to our minds and hearts, we should sing with gladness.  I need not dwell upon that great and wonderful paradox by which the co-existence of sorrow and of joy is possible.  The sorrows are on the surface; beneath there may be rest.  All the winds of heaven may rave across the breast of ocean, and fret it into clouds of spume against a storm-swept sky.  But deep down there is stillness, and yet not stagnation, because there is the great motion that brings life and freshness; and so, though there will be wind-vexed surfaces on our too-often agitated spirits, there ought to be deeper than these the calm setting of the whole ocean of our nature towards God Himself.  It is possible, as this Apostle has it, to be ‘sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.’  It is possible, as his brother Apostle has it, to ’rejoice greatly, though now for a season we are in sorrow through manifold temptations.’  Look back upon your lives from the point of view that your tribulation is an instrument to produce hope, and you will be able to thank God for all the way by which He has led you.

Now, brethren, the plain lesson of all this is just that we have here, in these texts, a linked chain, one end of which is wrapped around our sinful hearts, and the other is fastened to the Throne of God.  You cannot drop any of the links, and you must begin at the beginning, if you are to be carried on to the end.  If we are to have a joy immovable, we must have a ‘steadfast hope.’  If we are to have a ‘steadfast hope,’ we must have a present ‘grace.’  If we are to have a present ‘grace,’ and ‘access’ to the fullness of God, we must have ‘peace with God.’  If we are to have ‘peace with God,’ we must have the condemnation and the guilt taken away.  If we are to have the condemnation and the guilt taken away, Jesus Christ must take them.  If Jesus Christ is to take them away, we must have faith in Him.  Then you can work it backward, and begin at your own end, and say, ’If I have faith in Jesus Christ, then every link of the chain in due succession will pass through my hand, and I shall have justifying, peace, access, the grace, erectness, hope, and exultation, and at last He will lead me by the hand into the glory for which I dare to hope, the glory which the Father gave to Him before the foundation of the world, and which He will give to me when the world has passed away in fervent heat.’

A THREEFOLD CORD

   ’And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is
   shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is
   given unto us.’—­ROMANS v. 5.