JOY UNSPEAKABLE

"Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." -- I Peter 1:8, 9.

     For Peter to see Jesus, was to love Him, to love Him was to worship Him, and to worship Jesus was to forsake all and follow Him. From that time Peter became a fisher of men. A proof of his apostleship was the fact that he had seen Jesus. Jesus pronounced a blessing on Thomas because he believed when he had seen but a greater blessing on the one who should believe without seeing.

     Allow me to venture the statement that never a truer heart beat than the heart of the impetuous Peter. He loved his Master. When they walked together along the dusty highway, or sat by the seaside, he hung on His every word, and made the discovery that Jesus only had the words of eternal life. He loved Jesus when his eyes beheld Him, he loved Him more when He left. As far as we can discover, Peter never allowed a doubt concerning the power of his Master to work all miracles, and after he was left alone, by the power of this Christ, he himself healed the sick and raised the dead.

     Impetuous love, implicit faith, tumultuous joy -- a joy unspeakable and full of glory, were characteristic of this fisherman disciple.

     "Whom having not seen, ye love." Can any person be found who loves Napoleon, or Alexander, or Caesar? Can Plato, or Aristotle, or Pythagoras boast of enthralling the affections of any person of the twentieth century? More than this, do the disciples of Mohammed, or Confucius, or Buddha follow their leaders through love or through fear and frenzied fanaticism? There is no real love where the cross is not known. "We love Him because He first loved us."

     Christ is not dead, but liveth forevermore. He lives today in the love of His followers as truly as when men saw Him face to face. Men will give their lives for Him, not because of some promised sensual reward in the world to come, but because they love Him and would glorify His name. How worthy is Jesus Christ of the best affections of our hearts, and how poor, in comparison, is the love we give!

     "Were the whole realm of nature mine,

     That were a present far too small:

     Love so amazing, so divine,

     Demands my soul, my life, my all."

     Man is so constituted that his affections must be centered on some being or thing. Different men have different treasures, but wherever these treasures may be, there is the heart. Some love money, some love houses and lands, some their homes, others pleasure and rioting. How far beneath the immortal dignity of man are all these! To love God, and all other lovely things in God, is the highest center of the affections. Augustine says, "For he loves thee too little who loves aught with thee, which he loves not for thee, O love, who ever burnest, and art never quenched! O charity, My God, kindle me! "

     "In whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing." Faith is not faith unless it is operative in the dark. That person who must have signs and wonders to inspire faith, is a whole-souled unbeliever; that person whose confidence in God flags in danger or disappointment, has need of strength from on high; and that person who must have gifts, blessings or revelations to produce faith and obedience, is following Jesus for the loaves and fishes. True faith is not in things, but in Christ.

     A love that grows cold, or in the least degree seeks another center, when absent from the person of its affections, is at best a poor love. Genuine love increases with distance, and glows more warmly as the days go by. True love cannot be dampened by trials and burdens. If your love for God grows cold and amid trials, temptations, persecutions, misunderstandings, sickness, or any other thing, there is an icy center, carnality, that should be removed.

     God is anxious that we should love Him when most invisible; He desires that we should lean on Him when He is not to be seen; to trust Him that He will fit us for our burdens and our burdens for us. Mocking trials and bitter tears should not cool the ardor of our love. God loves and cares for us whatever the circumstances.

     "Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." Note the fact that no man is called upon to rejoice in a shadow, or in an untruth. Faith is not accepting an untruth with such determination that it becomes a truth, real faith touches God through Jesus Christ. Founded on Christ, really and consciously, the believer must rejoice. "Let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the tops of the mountains."

     The apostle tries to express the extent of the Christian's exultation. Joy is defined as a lively emotion of happiness. But the world has all this. Can the Christian have no more? In answer the Galilean disciple doubles up the expression, and declares that we "rejoice with joy." This expresses a genuine emotion of happiness, springing up, not grudgingly or by force, but spontaneously, from the depths of the soul. This is a rejoicing that has a fountain of joy from which it springs. Some rejoicing is only on the surface, and beneath is a deep current of discontent and unrest. But this is not so. Well done, Peter. But let me ask, "Does not the, world have all this? Does not the mother forget her anguish when from the depths of her mother heart springs an unbidden stream, a stream of rejoicing because of the beautiful infant son who for the first time is placed in her arms and nestles up to her bosom? "This is not imaginary joy, it is real. Does this duplicate the Christian's privilege? Let us hear from Peter again.

     "Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable." Wonderful! This begins to account for some of the strange scenes we sometimes see. Men and women clapping their hands, laughing, weeping, shouting, running, jumping, and other like manifestations. They have a joy that is unspeakable, it is inexpressible, and when they have done their best they all declare, "The half has never yet been told." But can not the world duplicate this? Peter, did you ever attend the forum and witness there the indescribable scenes of inexpressible joy when the favorite charioteer gained the day, or. when the footman who was the idol of the people finished first? If you never saw those things, or parallel events, it might be well to go to the modern baseball or football game, or the political convention, or a dozen other events of every-day occurrence. We would be glad, Peter, if you would give us a promise that our joy would excel that of all these. Will you try again?

     And he does. This time he introduces an element which this world does not possess. He goes to headquarters, the source from which spiritual possibilities emanate, and lays hold on a principle that grows or is produced only there, and carrying it back exultingly, he takes the hitherto empty pitcher of earthly joy, and crowds it full, yea, he presses it down, he shakes it together, he runs it over, he fills this unspeakable joy with glory. Do you know what he means? Thrice blessed soul, thou art favored of God I Is there a vagueness in the idea of glory that is painful? Then ask God to give you to understand; and, better yet, to possess His glory.

     I confess my inability to express in words the meaning of the apostle, but I am not prepared to confess my inability to understand and to possess that of which he speaks. What is glory? I answer, its definition can be known only by those who possess it? It is like the white stone in which a new name is written that no man knoweth save him that receiveth it.

     There is an eternal variety in this glory-filled, heavenly joy that manifests itself in ever-varying, ever-changing, ever-new unfoldings and startling, but rapturous, revelations.