“Do not set too much store by your own feelings as evidences of grace. ‘The fruit of the Spirit is joy,’ but you may not at this moment be conscious of joy: trees are not always bearing fruit, and yet their substance is in them when they lose their leaves.
Some young people say, ‘Oh, we know we are saved, because we are so happy.’ It is by no means a sure evidence, for joy may be carnal, unfounded, unspiritual. Certain Christians are afraid that they cannot be in a saved state because they are not joyous, but we are saved by faith and not by joy.
The word of God is a more sure testimony to the soul than all the raptures a man can feel. I would sooner walk in the dark, and hold hard to a promise of my God, than trust in the light of the brightest day that ever dawned.
Precious as the fruit is, do not put the fruit where the root should be. Please to recollect that. Joy is not the root of grace in the soul, it is the fruit, and must not be put out of its proper position.”
–Charles H. Spurgeon, “The Fruit of the Spirit: Joy” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 27 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1881), 77.
