October 10

Fountains of joy

“For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 14:17).
“And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away”(Isa.35:10).

The reason why Christians are not overflowing with joy is because they are not filled with the Holy Ghost. “The Kingdom of God is . . . righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” When the blessed Comforter fills the heart of a believer, He opens such a fountain of joy within him, so sweet, so full and so lasting as to utterly extinguish all desire for base delights. “I am dwelling,” wrote the seraphic Payson in one of his letters, “in the land of Beulah, the celestial city is in full view. I can hear its song; I am gazing at its sunshine; I am breathing its sweet odors. Oh, that I had only known what I now know twenty-five years ago! I might have walked all my days in the light of Heaven.”


The Spirit-filled Christian has an artesian well of joy in his heart, a miraculous spring opened in his breast, which fills, floods and overwhelms his soul with joy unspeakable all the year round. Common surface wells are soon dry, but artesian wells, even in dry weather, have plenty of water.
(From New Testament Holiness by Thomas Cook. Used by permission of the Epworth Press).

The joy of the Holy Ghost: it is supernatural—an out-gushing fountain from a rock stricken by the rod of a greater than Moses. It is a joy not springing up in the course of nature, but handed down from Heaven, and implanted in the believing soul. It is really a miraculous spring opened by the Holy Spirit in the Sahara of the human breast.
—Daniel Steele.

Thou Who givest of Thy gladness
Till the cup runs o’er—
Cup whereof the pilgrim weary
Drinks to thirst no more—
Not a-nigh me, but within me
Is Thy joy divine;
Thou, O Lord, hast made Thy dwelling
In this heart of mine.
—Gerhardt Tersteegen.

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