On  such  a  day,  then,  from  the  very  intensity  of
joy  which  Christians  ought  to  feel,  and  the  trial
which  they  have  gone  through,  they  will  often  be
disposed  to  say  little.  Rather,  like  sick  people
convalescent,  when  the  crisis  is  past,  the  illness
over,  but  strength  not  yet  come,  they  will  come
forth  to  the  light  of  day  and  the  freshness  of  the
air,  and  silently  sit  down  under  the  shadow  of
that  Tree,  with  great  delight,  whose  fruit  is  sweet
to  their  taste.  They  are  disposed  rather  to  muse
and  be  at  peace,  than  to  use  many  words ;  for  their
joy  has  been  so  much  the  child  of  sorrow,  is  of  so
transmuted  and  complex  a  nature,  so  bound  up
with  painful  memories  and  sad  associations,  that
though  it  is  a  joy  only  the  greater  from  the  con-
trast, it  is  not,  cannot  be,  as  if  it  had  never  been
sorrow.
1  Isa.  ix.  3.
