forgiveness with Him? If sin is confessed and forsaken, will He not
pardon it? Dry your tears then, and, instead of crying, rejoice. Be
merry and glad that God is willing to forgive, nay, that He has forgiven
you.

Cheer up, for this day is holy unto the Lord; it is a feast day, the
joyous Feast of Trumpets. Mourn not, nor weep. Do not imagine that God
likes you to be miserable; He wants you to be happy. You have owned your
sin, you have repented of your sin; now let your hearts be filled with
the joy that come from a sense of sin forgiven.

Go home now, and keep the feast. Eat and drink of the best you have,
eat the fat and drink the sweet, the new sweet wine made from this
year's grapes. Go home and enjoy yourselves to the full; but do not
forget those who are worse off than yourselves, remember those poor
people who have suffered so much from the late famine, who have paid
their last penny to the tax-collector, who have lost their all in these
hard times. Let them enjoy themselves too to-day. Eat the fat and drink
the sweet, but do not forget to send portions to them for whom nothing
is prepared. Remember the empty cupboards, and the bare tables, and the
houses where the fat and the sweet are nowhere to be seen.

What a word for us at the time of our joyous Christmas feast! God loves
us to be happy. He likes us to rejoice; He does not want us to go about
with long faces and melancholy looks. A long-faced Christian is a
Christian who brings disgrace on his Master.

Then as we meet, year by year, round the happy Christmas table, and sit
down to our Christmas dinner, let us remember that God loves us to be
happy; but let us also remember that in the midst of all our joy He