in acquiring truth throughout many ages; but the atmosphere which
they breathe, the light in which they dwell, is love. They are happy
not merely in what they hear, or see, or know of the things of God,
but chiefly in what they are towards God himself. They know Him, and
this is life eternal.

And, finally, it is in the defect of this in which devils are unhappy.
For Satan, as he "goes to and fro in the earth, and in walking up and
down in it," may hear those sounds of loveliness which delight our
ears, but they are no music to his jarring and discordant spirit; and
he may behold those sights of loveliness which delight our eye, but he
does so as the prowling lion who perceives no grandeur in the glorious
mountains which echo to his savage roar. Nor does the exercise of his
subtle intellect afford him joy, because it is not in harmony with
truth, nor with the God of truth; but is as a "wandering star, to
which is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever." And therefore,
though he is a king, he is king of darkness, and carries hell in his
own bosom, whether he moves among the beauteous bowers of Eden, or
dwells for days upon earth, in the wilderness, in the holy temple, or
on the high mountain, with even God manifest in the flesh beside him.
He has no holiness, no love, and therefore no peace or joy.

And thus does our joy depend on our fellowship with God in character.
Other things _may_ be, this _must_ be, if we are to be happy. Other
things are required to give our joy fulness; this is essential to
give it existence. For the body may be deprived of all pleasurable
sensation, and the intellect unable to grapple with the simplest
problem, "in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and those
that look out at the windows are darkened, and the daughters of music
are brought low,"--yet the light of joy may still shine in the soul,
so long as the mind can discern that "God is," and the heart feel that
"God is love." Not, therefore, in the gratification of his sentient
tastes; nor in the certainties of pure intellect; nor in science,
which "can put forth its hand and feel from star to star;" nor even in
the exercise of that genius--so like His own creative power!--whose
contrivances change the aspect of the world, and whose glorious
flights can speed to airy regions "which no fowl knoweth nor the
vulture's eye hath seen:" not in those outer courts of God's great
temple has the Father willed that His immortal child