It is a bright, sunny morning, but the sunshine without is as nothing to the sunshine within. He has taught me something of what is meant by “Rejoice in the Lord”; and rejoice I must, and rejoice I do. I want you too to have fellowship, partnership in this joy.
It is not that I have anything new to tell you, but I am feeling it all anew. I have hitherto used the words “Rejoice in the Lord” as meaning in our oneness with Him, or in the measure of His grace imparted to us or working in us. Of course it is not this. At other times it has been more the thought of rejoicing in fellowship with Him — in that which gives Him joy, or which is ensured to us in Him… Yet, clearly, it is not this either. I now see it is not in what He is to me, not in what He is working, or has worked, or may work in, for or by me, but in Himself I am to rejoice; in what He is and has in Himself absolutely.
And this, it appears to me, is the only possible or even legitimate ground for constant, unchanging, full joy. We cannot but rejoice, when our oneness with Him is realised, in His preciousness, grace, love, holiness, indeed in all His perfections. He is “the same, yesterday, and to-day and for ever.” If our joy be in His keeping down sin in us, a fall or two destroys that; if it be in His working in or through us, we may not be conscious of the measure in which He is doing so, and may be puffed up or cast down without due reason; but if it be in Him as He is, this cannot change or fluctuate… Ah, my darling, what ground for changeless joy we have in JESUS!
From a letter written to his wife from Hang-chow, China, November 9, 1869.
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