The spirit of the world has so far made inroads on Christian views that seriousness goes at great discount. It is "Laugh and the world laughs with you," nowadays. The sober-minded man is dubbed "long-faced," and that finishes the consideration of him; and our hard-run "humorists" have to draw largely on the long-faced church member and his supposed woe-begone look for their fun. Now there is certainly no room for melancholy in the religion of Christ--not in it, least of all. But if a man turn to the Lord, he gives him first of all an insight into the terrible earnestness of life and the awful issues that hang upon it, that he may no longer while away his days in idle pleasure and fritter his life away in frivolity and play. Be "jolly" in the face of the things God reveals if you can! Christ's religion gives a deep joy and peace; but "the laughter of fools is like the crackling of thorns under a pot," and has nothing in common with the fruit [91] of the Spirit, which "is love, joy, peace." It is God's will "that aged men be temperate, grave, sober-minded; that aged women likewise be reverent in demeanor." And while God takes account of the buoyant spirit of youth, he nevertheless exhorts the younger men likewise to be sober-minded, and the young preacher to show himself an example; "in thy doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity"--which latter is exactly the opposite of levity. God wants glad service and gladness of us all. Why should we not be glad when we are right with him? But that shallow mirth that is twin sister to folly, that much-prized jocoseness, is not of God, and is not good for men. It only veils and distorts the solemn verities that underlie all things.

[TAG 91-92]