September 28, our good is His glory.

But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret.

And your father who sees in secret will reward you.

Matthew 6.

One common objection to Christian hedonism

is that it puts the interests of man above the glory of God.

That it puts my happiness above God's honor.

But Christian hedonism most emphatically does not do this.

To be sure, we Christian hedonists endeavor to pursue our interest and our happiness with all our might.

We endorse the resolution of the young Jonathan Edwards resolved to endeavor to obtain for

myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all

the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence I am capable of or can bring myself to exert

in any way that can be thought of.

But we have learned from the Bible and from Edwards that God's interest is to magnify

the fullness of His glory by spilling over in mercy to us, to us sinners who desperately need Him.

Therefore, the pursuit of our interest and our happiness, even if it costs us our lives,

is never above God's interest and God's happiness and God's glory,

but always in God's.

One of the most precious truths in the Bible is that God's greatest interest is to glorify the wealth of his grace

by making sinners happy in him. In him. When we humble ourselves like little children

and put on no heirs of self-sufficiency,

but run happily into the joy of our Father's embrace,

...