| The Joy of Service |
Chapter 1 |
Page 6 |
This joy of service Christ bequeathed also to His folowers, – “that My joy may be in you.” There are other sources, too, of Christian joy, – forgiveness, childship in God’s family, hope, Divine fellowship; but the joy that comes from serving is the purest and fullest of all. We have a hint of this in the Master’s word, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” This is a much deeper saying than we usually think it to be. There is much giving to us that is very wonderful. There are many and great spiritual blessings which come to us as gifts. Salvation is all of grace; we earn nothing that we receive. We have the gift of pardon, of life, of the Holy Spirit, of the inheritance in glory; but it is more blessed for us to give than to receive even these Divine gifts. The richest, truest, deepest, realest blessing that can come to any heart is the blessing of giving, of doing, of suffering, of sacrificing for others, of serving them in love.
The joy of service is therefore the sweetest, holiest joy possible. After the best happiness that can come through all other pure sources, human or Divine, the joy that means the most to the heart and life is that which is found in loving and serving others in the name of Christ.
Without this element no other joy is complete. God’s best gifts to us would not make us deeply and securely happy, if we only received and enjoyed them, and did not become servants of others with them. Even communion with God would fail to bring us true and abiding blessing, if we went not out from the holy presence on ministries of love to those who need. No blessing we keep for ourselves alone can give us deep and holy gladness. No vision of angels, no theophany, can produce such thrills of rapture in the heart as are enjoyed in some lowly service of love.
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