View source for Union of Serious Piety with Habitual Cheerfulness

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<p>It is a mistake often made by young people, to  associate piety with a downcast look, a sad countenance, and an aching heart.  Perhaps the mistakes of some good people, in putting on a grave and severe  visage, approaching even to moroseness, may have given some occasion for this  sentiment. I do not know, indeed, how prevalent the sentiment is among the young.  I can hardly think it is common with those who are piously educated. As for  myself, I well remember that, in my childhood, I thought true Christians must  be the happiest people in the world. There is no doubt, however, that many  pleasure-loving young people do look upon religion with that peculiar kind of  dread which they feel of the presence of a grave, severe maiden aunt, which  would spoil all their pleasure.<br><br>
  And, I do not deny, that there are certain kinds of  sinful pleasure which piety spoils; but then&nbsp;<strong>it first removes the taste  and desire for them</strong>, after which the spoliation is nothing to be lamented.  It is true, also, that there are some things in piety which are painful.  Repentance for sin is a painful exercise; self-denial is painful; the  resistance of temptation is sometimes trying; and the subduing of evil  dispositions is a difficult work. But, to endure whatever of suffering there is  in these things, is a saving in the end. It is less painful than the tortures  of a guilty conscience, the gnawings of remorse, and the fear of hell. It is  easier to be endured than the consequences of neglecting true religion. If you  get a sliver in your finger, it is easier to bear the pain of having it  removed, than it is to carry it about with you. If you have a decayed tooth, it  is easier to have it extracted than to bear the toothache. So it is easier to  repent of sin than to bear remorse and fear. And the labour of resisting  temptation, and of restraining and subduing evil dispositions, is not so great  an interference with one's happiness as it is to carry about a guilty  conscience.<br><br>
  There is, however, nothing in true piety  inconsistent with habitual cheerfulness. There is a difference between  cheerfulness and levity. Cheerfulness is serene and peaceful. Levity is light  and trifling. The former promotes evenness of temper and equanimity of  enjoyment; the latter drowns sorrow and pain for a short time, only to have it  return again with redoubled power.<br><br>
  The Christian hope, and the promises and  consolations of God's word, furnish the only true ground of cheerfulness. Who  should be cheerful and happy, if not one who is delivered from the terrors of  hell and the fear of death—who is raised to the dignity of a child of God—who  has the hope of eternal life—the prospect of dwelling forever in the presence  of God, in the society of the blessed, and in the enjoyment of perfect  felicity? But no one would associate these things with that peculiar kind of  mirth, which is the delight of the pleasure-loving world. Your sense of propriety  recoils from the idea of associating things of such high import with rudeness,  frolicking, and mirth. Yet there is an innocent gaiety of spirits, arising from  natural vivacity, especially in the period of childhood and youth, the  indulgence of which, within proper bounds, piety does not forbid.<br><br>
  There is a happy medium between a settled, severe  gravity and gloom—and frivolity, levity, and mirth—which young Christians  should strive to cultivate. If you give unbounded license to a mirthful spirit,  and indulge freely in all manner of levity, frivolity, and foolish jesting, you  cannot maintain that devout state of heart which is essential to true piety. On  the other hand, if you studiously repress the natural vivacity of youthful  feeling, and cultivate a romantic kind of melancholy, or a severe gravity—you  will destroy the elasticity of your spirits, injure your health, and very  likely become peevish and irritable, and of a sour, morose temper; and this  will be quite as injurious to true religious feeling as the other.<br><br>
  The true medium is, to unite serious piety with  habitual cheerfulness. Always bring Christian motives to bear upon your  feelings. The gospel of Jesus Christ has a remedy  for everything in life that is calculated to make us gloomy and sad. It offers  the pardon of sin to the penitent and believing, the aid of grace to those who  struggle against an evil disposition, and succour and help against temptation.  It promises to relieve the believer from fear, and afford consolation in  affliction. There is no reason why a true Christian should not be cheerful.  There are, indeed, many things, which he sees, within and without, that must  give him pain. But there is that in his Christian hope, and in the  considerations brought to his mind from the Word of God, which is able to bear  him high above them all.<br><br>
  Let me, then, earnestly recommend you to cultivate  a serious but cheerful piety. Let your religion be neither of that spurious  kind which expends itself in sighs, and tears, and gloomy feelings; nor that  which makes you insensible to all feeling. But while you are alive to your own  sins and imperfections, exercising godly sorrow for them, and while you feel a  deep and earnest sympathy for those who have no saving interest in Christ, let  your faith in the atoning blood of Jesus, and your confidence in God, avail to  keep you from sinking into melancholy and gloom, and make you cheerful and  happy, while you rest in God.</p>
And  now, gentle reader, after this long conversation, I must take leave of you,  commending you to God, with the prayer that my book may be useful to you, in  the formation of a well-balanced Christian character; and that, after you and I  shall have done the errand for which the Lord sent us into the world, we may  meet in heaven. God bless you!
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