The Happy Christian: Or, Piety the Only Foundation of True and Substantial Joy CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014 M12 24 - 112 pages "The aim of the writer is rather to vindicate Piety from an unjust aspersion, namely, that she robes her followers in gloom and sadness. That she makes them serious, we do not deny; but there is a wide difference between sobriety and melancholy. Sobriety is not opposed to cheerfulness, though it is to levity. Cheerfulness abounds everywhere in the works of God; but levity nowhere, except in the bosom and on the countenance of the thoughtless; and there, it is not the legitimate expression of God's image, but the evidence and the effervescence of sin. The lark is cheerful, as it mounts from its grassy nest, and soars away to the heavens, singing as it goes. Cheerful also is the summer morning, revealing its glad scenery, as the rising sun gilds one feature after another of the landscape. Nature in all this has a lesson for man: she teaches him that Piety, in inculcating cheerfulness while she rebukes levity, is but a faithful response to her own emphatic instructions." "There is but one influence which can effectually reach and relieve that heart, or drive from that anxious countenance its look of deep despondency: Piety can do it. It is her province alone to heal the wounds of our disordered nature, and to send the glow of spiritual health through the soul. And when she comes to perform her work of love and mercy, she first, like her great Author, enters the polluted temple of the heart, and with a scourge, drives out the intruder, and then consecrates it by her presence, and illuminates it by her own heavenly smile." Chapter 1 Piety vindicated from the charge of gloom Chapter 2 Piety gives more and purer joys than it takes away Chapter 3 The adaptation of piety to all the soul's desires Chapter 4 The joy of true piety Chapter 5 Pious joy enjoined in the scriptures Chapter 6 The foundation of pious joy Chapter 7 The joy of believing in God Chapter 8 Pious joy connected with proper conceptions of the divine character Chapter 9 The relation of pious joy to the doctrine of Providence Chapter 10 The joy of salvation Chapter 11 Joyful Promises Chapter 12 Joyful prospects Chapter 13 Obstructions to pious joy Chapter 14 Constant contact with the WORLD unfavorable to pious joy Chapter 15 Constant contact with the WORLD unfavorable to pious joy, continued Chapter 16 The pursuit of riches unfavorable to a Christian's happiness. Chapter 17 Social and business engagements sometimes obstructions to a Christian's joy. Chapter 18 Business engagements Chapter 19 The influence of light reading opposed to the progress of piety Chapter 20 The spirit of controversy opposed to the exercise of pious joy Chapter 21 Circumstances favorable to the promotion of pious joy Chapter 22 The useful Christian happy Chapter 23 The joy of contentment Chapter 24 Submission Chapter 25 Joy in death Chapter 26 Conclusion |
