ing, and yet the same Love too will make us long and
pray for His coming. Oh God our Father, grant unto us all and to all
Thy people throughout this world a greater, a deeper, a more real
knowledge of the Love of thine ever blessed Son, the Love of Christ,
and fill us through it with all the fulness of God. Amen.

The Joy of the Lord.

IT is written "the joy of the Lord is your strength." Every child of
God knows in some measure what it is to rejoice in the Lord. The
Lord Jesus Christ must ever be the sole object of the believer's
joy, and as eyes and heart look upon Him, we, too, like "the
strangers scattered abroad" to whom Peter wrote shall "rejoice with
joy unspeakable and full of glory" (1 Pet. i:8). But it is upon our
heart to meditate with our beloved readers on the joy of our
adorable Lord, as his own personal joy. The Blessed One when His
feet walked on the earth spoke not only of "My Peace," but He also
spoke of "My Joy." While He imparts peace and joy and is the peace
and joy of our hearts, He also possesses His own Peace and His own
Joy.

"The Joy of the Lord." There was a time "when the morning stars sang
together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job xxxviii:7).
It was in the beginning when the heavens and the earth were created
by Him, who is before all things and by whom all things consist, the
Son of God. With what joy He must have beheld what was called into
existence by Him and for Him (Col. i:16). But even before the
foundation of the world He had joy. With God, in the bosom of the
Father Love, Glory and Joy were His eternal portion. All was known
to Him from the beginning. The fall of Satan, the fall of man
through Satan, the entrance of sin with all its results, the cost
price of redemption, the suffering in the flesh on the cross for the
redemption of the creature, the multitudes, whom no man can number,
redeemed through His work, believing in Him, brought to God, united
with Him, Sons and Heirs with Him, the ultimate victory over all
enemies, so that God would be "all in all"--all was known to Him.

What joy must have filled Him when at His incarnation He announced,
"Lo I come to do Thy will O God" (Heb. x:5, 6). And then He came and
took upon Himself the form of a servant, the first word the heavenly
messenger spoke, sent to the virgin to announce the incarnation, was
a word of joy. Never before had Gabriel been sent with such a
message. "Hail" our English version has it; bu