I read this today in the latest issue of the Banner of Truth Magazine. It is an extract from a sermon on John 1 by Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones :
(…) Another trouble with our attitude towards sanctification is that we desire to be happy rather than holy. We want happiness so we go to our meetings, our conferences, our conventions, to get ‘it’. What is ‘it’? It is the happiness of getting rid of our problems. A book that has had a great influence has a significant title: The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life. That’s it! ‘Happy life’! Come along, I will tell you. I can make you happy quite easily. You need not wade through your Bible, you need not understand theology, you need not go this long, roundabout way via the law. Here you are: ‘The Christian’s secret of a happy life’. But happiness does not come first.
What does come first? Holiness!