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HEALTHY AND HAPPY.
BY THEODORE L. CUYLERTHE Christmas bells are ringing in thebrightest day in the Christian calendar.The clock of time will soon strike for thebirth of another twelvemonth, when everyman will wish his neighbor a " Happy NewYear ! " To many it will no doubt be aday of sadness, for it will remind them of the loved ones whom the past year hasburied out of their sight; but every gen-uine disciple of Jesus, every heir of heaven,ought to possess deep and abiding resour-ces of joy, that lie as far beneath the tem-pests of trial as the depths of the Atlanticare beneath the storms that have lately tornits surface into foaming billows. Everyhealthy Christian ought to be a happyHEALTHY AND HAPPY. 1 35Christian under every stress of circum-stances.A living Christian who is worthy of thename must possess more or less of the Jioli-ness without which no man can see theLord. There is a misconception and aprejudice in the minds of some good peoplein regard to this word, on account of theabuse of it by certain visionaries of the''perfectionist" school. But holiness sig-nifies health of heart and life. It is equiva-lent to the Saxon word wholtJi, and tobe holy is really to be whole or healed.Sin is soul-sickness ; regeneration by theDivine Spirit is recovery from that sickness.There is no condemnation of guilt to themwho are in Christ Jesus ; He is the physi-cian who delivers them from deadly disease.If good health means misery, then is asincere Christian a miserable mope ; butif health means a happy condition, thenshould Christ's redeemed ones be the mostcheerful, sunny-hearted people in the com-munity.136 HEALTHY AND HAPPY.There are several characteristics of a true
 
child of God. One of them is that he isforgiven. To be pardoned has made manya prison-door like a gate of paradise. Thesweet sense of sin forgiven has been anecstasy to thousands who had '* groaned,being burdened," but had found relief atthe cross of Christ. Another evidence of spiritual health is a good conscience, ù aconscience enlightened by the Bible, aconscience kept sweet and wholesome byprayer, a conscience that comforts itspossessor, instead of tormenting him by acertain fearful looking-for of judgment.What a diseased liver is in the bodilyorganization, is a bad conscience in thespiritual man, it breeds continual mischief and misery. " How is your liver ? " wasthe first question of a shrewd and humor-ous old minister to me on my entranceinto the ministry. When I told him thatit was sound, he replied, *' Then yoti 7/ do."That Christian never suffers from spiritualHEALTHY AND HAPPY. 1 37dyspepsia who keeps a conscience void of offence towards God and man.A healthy soul has a strong appetite forDivine truth. He enjoys the daily mannaof the Word, and has no lustings for the" flesh-pots " of the world. It is not thestimulant of spiced pastry that he is after,but the strong meat of the gospel as wellas the honeycomb. His soul '* delights it-self in the fatness " of God's Word. Tosome people Mr. Moody's style of talkingabout the banquet which the Bible affordshim seems like extravagance; the reasonis, that their spiritual taste is utterly cor-rupted by feeding on such confectionery asnovels and secular newspapers. A combi-nation of Bible-diet and Bible-duties wouldsoon make them as vigorous as Mr. Moody.If he did not show in his own conduct andcondition the ''feeding" he lives on, hewould not make many converts.HoHness is constant agreement with God.It is the agreement of love ù deeper even138 HEALTHY AND HAPPY.and sweeter than the most unbroken
 
wedlock. From this harmony of soul withthe Divine Will flows a great deep, broadriver of peace, which passeth all under-standing and fathoming. This stream growsdeeper and wider, until, like an Amazon, itempties into the ocean of eternal love. Theholy believer ù who accepts God's prom-ises more readily than the best governmentbonds, who shapes his life in conformitywith Christ, who keeps his soul's windowsopen towards the sun-rising, who makeseven a cross the ladder for a climb into ahigher fellowship with Jesus, who realizesthat just before him lies the exceeding andeternal weight of glory, ù cannot be madea sour or peevish or melancholy man byany outward circumstances. The holy-minded Rutherford of Scotland wrote mostof his immortal " Letters " within the cellof a martyr's prison. They read like leavesfrom the tree of life, floated down on sun-beams. *' Come, O my well-beloved ! " heHEALTHY AND HAPPY. 1 39exclaims ; " move fast, that we may meetat the banquet. I would not exchange onesmile of Christ's lovely face for kingdoms.There is no house-room for crosses inheaven. Sorrow and the saints are notmarried together ; or, if it were so, heavenwould divorce them." The holiness of sucha man is not the enthusiasm of a visionaryor the mere outburst of transient emotion ;it is the normal condition of the man, thewholeness of a soul that has been trans-formed by grace into the likeness and thelife of Jesus Christ. Keeping Christ's com-mandments keeps the eye clear and thetemper sweet and the will submissive andthe affections pure : in these lies the richreward.The highest type of piety is cheerful.The more we stud}- the lives and examplesof the healthiest Christians, the more wefind them to be the men and women whowalk in the sunshine. The Luthers, theWilberforces, the Summerfields, the Guth-140 HEALTHY AND HAPPY,ries, the Spurgeons, and the Norman Mc-Leods were and are the Hving illustrations
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