I know no Bible study that you will
find more full of fruit, or which will take you nearer to the ways of
God, or make the Christian life itself more solid or more sure. I
shall add only a single other illustration of what I mean, before I
close.
Where does Joy come from? I knew a Sunday scholar whose conception of
Joy was that it was a thing made in lumps and kept somewhere in
Heaven, and that when people prayed for it, pieces were somehow let
down and fitted into their souls. I am not sure that views as gross
and material are not often held by people who ought to be wiser. In
reality, Joy is as much a matter of Cause and Effect as pain. No one
can get Joy by merely asking for it. It is one of the ripest fruits of
the Christian life, and, like all fruits, must be grown. There is a
very clever trick in India called the mango trick. A seed is put in
the ground and covered up, and after diverse incantations a full-blown
mango-bush appears within five minutes. I never met any one who knew
how the thing was done, but I never met any one who believed it to be
anything else than a conjuring trick.
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