" Fruit first, Joy
next; the one the cause or medium of the other. Fruit-bearing is the
necessary antecedent; Joy both the necessary consequent and the
necessary accompaniment. It lay partly in the bearing fruit, partly in
the fellowship which made that possible. Partly, that is to say, Joy
lay in mere constant living in Christ's presence, with all that that
implied of peace, of shelter, and of love; partly in the influence of
that Life upon mind and character and will; and partly in the
inspiration to live and work for others, with all that that brought of
self-riddance and joy in others' gain. All these, in different ways
and at different times, are
SOURCES OF PURE HAPPINESS.
Even the simplest of them--to do good to other people--is an instant
and infallible specific. There is no mystery about Happiness whatever.
Put in the right ingredients and it must come out. He that abideth in
Him will bring forth much fruit; and bringing forth much fruit is
Happiness. The infallible receipt for Happiness, then, is to do good;
and the infallible receipt for doing good is to abide in Christ.
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