Paul, who wrote the whole,
and meant the whole to stand together as one discourse; or to the
blessed and holy men who chose it for our lesson on this day. Let us
go on, then, with the Epistle, line by line, throughout.
"Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice." As much as
to say, you cannot rejoice too much, you cannot overdo your
happiness, thankfulness, merriment. You do not know half--no, not
the thousandth part of God's love and mercy to you, and you never
will know. So do not be afraid of being too happy, or think that you
honour God by wearing a sour face, when He is heaping blessings on
you, and calling on you to smile and sing. But "let your moderation
be known unto all men." There is a right and a wrong way of being
merry. There is a mirth, which is no mirth; whereof it is written,
in the midst of that laughter there is a heaviness, and the end
thereof is death. Drunkenness, gluttony, indecent words and jests
and actions, these are out of place on Christmas-day, and in the
merriment to which the pure and holy Lord Jesus calls you all. They
are rejoicing in the flesh and the devil, and not in the Lord at all;
and whosoever indulges in them, and fancies them merriment, is
keeping the devil's Christmas, and not Jesus Christ's.
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