"I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, [therewith] to be content." (Phil. 4:11.)
There is a secret of happiness which none but a Christian possesses, and which a Christian possesses in its full power only when he is living in communion with God, in the region of faith. "I know," says the apostle, " both how to be abased, and I know how to abound; everywhere and in all things, I am instructed, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” Now, this principle depends for its strength on the certainty that God's will cannot be defeated, and that His will arranges everything for the best for those who commit their way to Him. It also depends on the apprehension of the resources of our happiness being all in Christ, independent of all the circumstances which may affect the Christian in this world. Things in the world may be all confusion, and things in the Church may appear to be but little better, but this is not sufficient to destroy, or even to neutralize, the power of that principle of happiness of which the apostle speaks. God's counsels cannot be defeated—the ends of Christ's death cannot be frustrated—and the springs of the happiness of a risen man in Christ do not ebb and flow with the changing circumstances which may checker his earthly course. If outward prosperity makes me happy, it is plain my happiness does not spring entirely from the will of God; if, on the other hand, when things go contrary, I lose my enjoyment, it is plain that all my happiness has not been based on the will of God, which is always perfect. Christ's love never changes; His relationship to His Church never alters; the hope of His coming abides till His coming makes it no longer a hope; and, more than all, His present care of me, and of all that connects itself with the eternal good of His Church, is daily exercised.
Then why am I unhappy? Why am I downcast? Is it not because I want things, through my own selfishness, either in the world or in the Church, different from what Christ wills them? For, if Christ be the object of my heart, I have the certainty of God's eternal counsels concerning the glory of Christ for the ground of my assurance that I can never fail in the object I pursue.
It may be a hard lesson for such hearts as ours to be satisfied with this " secret of happiness;" but as there is no other for the servant of Christ, so is it unfailing where the heart is committed to it, and to it alone.
People little suspect that all the secret of their unhappiness is in their own hearts, and not in the circumstances through which they are -called to pass. If the world or self occupies any place which belongs to Christ, this principle of happiness will always be weakened, since no theory of the truth will ever keep the heart happy, without the power of the Holy Ghost. But Christ, and not the world, or the cravings of nature, or the pride of life, is the staple by which is produced in the soul the joy of the Holy Ghost.
I must learn to be dead to the world, if I am to live the life of Christ. But this is not the happiness of indifference, it is but the allowing God to have His place in wisdom, in goodness, and in the immutability of His counsels of grace in Christ Jesus. There may be exercises of soul with regard to the service of Christ in His Church or in the world; but then these exercises, so far from destroying my happiness, only carry me to Him who gives me rest in the knowledge that it is His care and His power that accomplishes everything; and that I have nothing to do but to follow His will, which can never fail. Christ was so sufficient for the apostle's soul, amidst dangers and difficulties, and wasting labors, and apparent discomfiture, that he wanted nothing else, and He is equally sufficient for you and me. And if we cannot in a moment leap up to this position practically, because we have been living at such a distance from God, and because
Christ has been so little the object of our souls, and the power of our walk, it is, nevertheless, a great thing to see clearly where the " secret of our happiness" is, and where the "secret" of our weakness and unhappiness lies.