The Joy of a Christian

No thoughtful person can question the fact that, for the most part, the Christian life, as it is generally lived is not entirely a happy life. A keen observer once said to me,

"You Christians seem to have a religion that makes you miserable. You are like a man with a headache. He does not want to get rid of his head, but it hurts him to keep it. You cannot expect outsiders to seek very earnestly for anything so uncomfortable."

Then for the first time I saw, as in a flash, that the religion of Christ ought to be and was meant to be, to its possessors, not something to make them miserable but something to make them happy; and I began then there to ask the Lord to show me the secret of a happy Christian life.

- Hannah Whitall Smith
(1832-1911), author of 'The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life'