To true happiness here, as well as for a guard against the dangers of it, sonic strain of sorrow seems of necessity to mingle with it, something wherein the soul has to submit itself to God—to say "It is the Lord."
Our joy to be solid must rest on something immovable. Just as soon as we hang our happiness on circumstances or surroundings, we go up or we go down with the tide. The thermometer of our joy is at the mercy of outside circumstances. " Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice."
You may be sure of this, that God never sent a trial so bitter that a Christ-filled Christian could not suck some honey out of it. God does not expect us to be callous under trial, or ask us to make merry at a funeral. But away down, deep under the tempest of trial He gives us a serene sense that whatever He does is right.
Oh! the power and the joy of being nothing, having nothing, and knowing nothing but a glorified Christ up there in heaven; and of being " careful for nothing " but the honor of His precious Name down here on earth.