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Joy and Power

Three messages with One meaning

by

Henry van Dyke

1903

Dedicated to my friend John Huston Finley

President of the College of the City of New York

THE PREFACE

The three messages which are brought together in this book were givennot far apart in time, though at some distance from one another inspace. The one called Joy and Power was delivered in Los Angeles,California, at the opening of the Presbyterian General Assembly, May 21,1903. The one called The Battle of Life was delivered on BaccalaureateSunday at Princeton University, June 7. The one called The Good Old Waywas delivered on Baccalaureate Sunday at Harvard University, June 14. Atthe time, I was thinking chiefly of the different qualities and needs ofthe people to whom I had to speak. This will account for some things inthe form of each message. But now that they are put together I can seethat all three of them say about the same thing. They point in the samedirection, urge the same course of action, and appeal to the samemotive. It is nothing new,—the meaning of this threefold message,—butit is the best that I have learned in life. And I believe it istrue,—so true that we need often to have it brought to remembrance.

Henry van Dyke

Avalon, July 5, 1903

CONTENTS

i. Joy and Power

ii. The Battle of Life

iii. The Good Old Way

JOY AND POWER

St. John viii. 17: If ye know these things, happy areye if ye do them.

I ask you to think for a little while about the religion of Christ inits relation to happiness.

This is only one point in the circle of truth at the centre of whichJesus stands. But it is an important point because it marks one of thelines of power which radiate from Him. To look at it clearly andsteadily is not to disregard other truths. The mariner takes the wholeheavens of astronomy for granted while he shapes his course by a singlestar.

In the wish for happiness all men are strangely alike. In theirexplanations of it and in their ways of seeking it they are singularlydifferent. Shall we think of this wish as right, or wrong; as a truestar, or a will-o'-the-wisp? If it is right to wish to be happy, whatare the conditions on which the fulfilment of this wish depends? Theseare the two questions with which I would come to Christ, seekinginstruction and guidance.

I. The desire of happiness, beyond all doubt, is a natural desire. Itis the law of life itself that every being seeks and strives toward theperfection of its kind, the realization of its own specific ideal inform and function, and a true harmony with its environment. Every drop