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22. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
This is not true of all merriment. The wise man justly describes the loud and noisy mirth of fools to be, no medicine, but “madness;”† a transient flash, not an abiding source of enjoyment. Probably this merriment here means nothing more than cheerfulness, which, in its proper measure, on proper subjects, and at a proper time, is a legitimate pleasure, especially belonging to religion. Our Lord thus made a merry heart by his message of divine forgiveness (Matthew 9:2-7); and this doubtless was a more healing medicine to the paralytic, than the restoration of his limbs. If I be a pardoned sinner, an accepted child of God, what earthly trouble can sink me? “Paul and Silas sang praises to God in the inner prison, with their feet made fast in the stocks.” (Acts 16:25.) The martyrs “glorified God in the fire.” They were “tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.” (Hebrews 11:35.) All earthly enjoyments are now doubly blest with heavenly sunshine. (Ecclesiastes 9:7-9.)
There is also the Christian flow of natural spirits. For when consecrated to the Lord, they become a means of enjoyment, not only to ourselves (Chapter 15:13), but to those around us. Often has the mourning saint been encouraged, often also has the worldling been convicted, by a brother's cheerful words or looks.† To the former it has been a medicine; to the latter a lesson.
A broken spirit in an evangelical sense is God's precious gift; stamped with his special honour, and always constituting an acceptable service. But here it describes a brooding spirit of despondency; always looking at the dark side; and, if connected with religion (which is not always the case), flowing from narrow and perverted views, a spurious humility centering in self. The influence drieth up the bones. The bodily system is sensibly affected. ‘It contracts and enfeebles the animal spirits; preys on our strength; eats out the vigour of the constitution. The radical moisture is consumed; and the unhappy subject of this passion droops like a flower in the scorching heat of summer.’†
Not less baneful is its influence upon the spiritual system. Hard thoughts of God are induced, as if he had forsaken, neglected, or forgotten us. From doubting, the soul comes to chilling fear; thence to gloomy despondency. The power of the telescope fails in bringing distant objects nigh. Hence the present hold of the grand object is feeble. The hope of future enjoyment is dark. Distance too often lessens communication. Prayer is less frequently or powerfully sent up. The answers therefore, and the supplies of cheering grace from this source, are more scanty. Thus we are not only weakened in comfort, but cut short in strength. The mind is clothed in sable. The chariot's wheels are taken off, so that we “drag heavily.” Discontent, and a querulous unbelieving sadness, take possession of the soul, and wholly unfit us for the service of God.
Most watchful therefore should we be against this withering influence. Allow not the imagination to dwell needlessly in gloom. Constitutional temperament will have its influence. External things act upon the body, and through the body upon the mind. We are some of us creatures even of weather, not the same on a misty as on a bright day. There is much in our physical economy rather within the province of the physician than the Minister; much perhaps that we may be inclined too hastily to censure in a brother, when a more accurate knowledge would open our sympathy. When outward and inward troubles unite, what wonder, if the vessel, like Paul's ship, “where two seas met” (Acts 27:41), give way?† Yet, let it be remembered that every indulgence increases the evil; and that allowed prevalence may end in a fixed melancholy.
Turn and see what materials can be gathered for resistance to this ruinous evil, and inducing a well-regulated cheerfulness. ‘Why am not I at this moment utterly overwhelmed with distress? How seldom, if ever, am I in pain all over at the same time! How faithfully do our greatest supports combine with our greatest trials!’ (2 Corinthians 1:5.) Surely in these recollections some excitement of pleasurable feeling might be directed into the channel of gratitude to God! How many rays of collected mercy shine from the great center of joy!
But to come more immediately to the gospel — Unquestionably there is abundant matter for the deepest humiliation. No words can adequately describe the shame that we ought to feel for our insensibility even on account of one single act of infinite love. Yet the gospel encourages humiliation, not despondency. It deals in the realities, not of woe and despair, but of hope, peace, and joy. Its life and glory is he that “bindeth up the broken-hearted” (Isaiah 61:1), who “will not break the bruised reed” (Ib. 42:3), or crush under his feet “the prisoners of hope.”
If then — Christian — you believe the gospel to be “glad tidings,” shew that you believe it, by lighting up your face with a smile; not by “bowing down the head as a bulrush,” and as it were “spreading sackcloth and ashes under you.” (Ib. 58:5.) Shew that it is the daylight of your soul; that you really find its ways to be “pleasantness and peace” (Chapter 3:17); that you believe their joys, not because you have read and heard of them, but because you have tasted them. If they are happy, be happy in them. “Lie not against the truth,” by suffering your countenance to induce the belief that religion is a habit of inveterate and incurable gloom. Joy is indeed a forbidden fruit to the ungodly.† But let it be the adorning of thy profession.† It is a sin against thy God to be without it.† The gloom of the servant reflects unjustly upon the Master, as if thou “knewest him, that he was an hard man.”† Resist then all sorrow that suggests such dishonourable thoughts of him. Disparage not his heavenly comfort by laying unduly to heart his counter-balancing afflictions. No cloud can cover you, but the “bow may be seen in the cloud.” And in all this world's afflictions, one beam of his love might scatter all the clouds, and fill the heart with “joy unspeakable and full glory.” “Let the LORD then be magnified, which hath pleasure,” not in the misery, but in “the prosperity of his servants.” (Psalm 35:27.) He giveth liberty to be cheerful, ground to be cheerful, and he will give thee an heart to be cheerful with animated gladness.
After all, however, — let each be careful to cultivate a just and even balance. Liveliness needs a guard, lest it should degenerate into levity. Be much in secret with God. Cherish a solemn, reverential spirit before the throne of grace. Christian joy is a deeply serious thing. The froth and lightness that passes for it deserves not the name. The carnal element must be destroyed to introduce the heaven-born principle that comes from God, and maintains communion with him.
Yet on the other a grave temperament must be resisted, lest it should sink into morbid depression. Gloom is not the portion, and ought not to stamp the character, of the children of God. It may often be a conflict with a man's own self, either in body or mind. But yet a little while, and, instead of the broken spirit which drieth up the bones, our spirits will be so high, that another body must be formed to contain them. Meanwhile Christian discipline on both sides will be the principle of enlarged happiness and steady consistency.
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