Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
ISAIAH 51:3
If thou art living a righteous and a useful life, doing thy duty orderly and cheerfully where God has put thee, then thou art making sweeter melody in the ears of the Lord Jesus Christ, than if thou hadst the throat of a nightingale; for then thou in thy humble place art copying the everlasting harmony and melody which is in heaven.
CHARLES KINGSLEY
IN proportion as the perfect obedience of the life of Christ comes, through humility and prayer and thought, to be the constant aim of all our efforts; in proportion as we try, God helping us, to think and speak and act as He did, and through all the means of grace to sanctify Him in our hearts; we shall, with growing hope and with a wonder that is ever lost in gratitude, know that even our lives are not without the earnest of their rest in an eternal harmony; that through them there is sounding more and more the echo of a faultless music: and that He who loves that concord, He who alone can ever make us what He bids us be, will silence in us every harsh and jarring note; that our service too may blend with the consenting praise of all His Saints and Angels.
FRANCIS PAGET
This is a public domain version of Joy and Strength.