HAPPINESS

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 3404, 15 December 1931, Page 3

HAPPINESS

AN ELOQUENT SERMON. (By Rev. T. E. Ruth, in the Sydney Sun.) What is happiness? If there is no happiness in wealth, there is none in poverty. It is one of the hypocrisies of conventioanl morality to say that it is a blessing to be born in a hovel. It isn't. The art of happiness involves being able to do cheerfully without things we cannot have, and enduring things we fain would be without, and in thinking the most interesting things about Man, the Universe, and God. Mr. Harold Deardon says there is no more common feature of presentday life than that which is commonly called "the hump." A man may possess all the treasures of the universe and yet not escape this really monstrous affliction. He offers some explanation and suggests a cure. He explains that if you hang your head, bend your shoulders, and make the best show you can of a heartbroken voice for a minute or two, you will feel much more depressed than you would have believed possible. On the other hand, if you adopt a cheerful and confident bearing, you will find yourself with no apparent reason cheerful and confident.

A Beaming Smile.

If you have the hump, he says, you should go to the looking-glass first thing in the morning and force yourself to greet with a beaming smile that curiously complex fellow who is your self. He calls it "The Morning Beam." Throughout the day you must acquire the bodily appearance associated with cheerfulness. Let it be hoped you can do it without looking

like a lunatic. But happiness is infinitely more than mere facial mechanics.

It is, of course, a personal affair. There is no happiness outside ourselves. And happiness isn't, in itself, a quest large enough to satisfy a large-souled man. Happiness isn't life's chief good.

There are many situations in which we find ourselves where a grin would be incongruous. There are crisis in personal character, when decisions have to be made in which we dare not consider whether or not our happiness is involved.

Yet we instinctively feel that a good man ought to be a happy man. The friends of Job. thought there must be some connection between misery and wrong-doing. And Jesus certainly expects His followers to lead happy lives. Christianity makes enormous contributions to character by its intellectual and philosophical interpretations of life, but always, in season and out of season, the two plain, practical problems confronting the church are the problems of sin and sorrow. The secret of mastery over sin must be communicated. And the place of peace in troubled times must be made known.

Christianity is both strenuous and soothing. It is quite possible that church services are soothing when they ought to be drastic and dynamic they sometimes administer a sedative when an astringent is necessary. It isn't easy to face the fact that you have failed. But you must face it honestly, bravely. You lost' control. You were not equal to the demands of the situation. Friends failed you. Death robbed you. And now discord hits you body, mind, and estate. And it seems to you to be a lonely and terrifying world. I am not going to deny the tragedy in life. The best Man the world has ever seen came to a cross. And, in the heart of us we should have little use for a God who did not share in the colossal travail of humanity. But there is a power transmuting trouble into triumph, an apostolic optimism glorifying in tribulation. To see our trouble in relation to the ultimate reality of life is to be saved from self-pity. Self-pity is the insidious foe of all the finest qualities of character. It saps mental energy. It creates moral tension. It clouds spiritual vision. Self-pity is a paralysing experience. It is safe to assume, without denying the real troubles and even the tragedy of life, that there is some-

thing wrong with the life-plan and spiritual purpose of men and women who live unhappily. Happiness may not be an easy task, but it surely ought not to be more difficult than any of the other arts and sciences. It is possible that we fail because we forget that living is an art, to be learned like any other art, adding virtue to virtue, grace to grace, glory to glory. When Jesus called the weary and heavy laden to come to Him and learn to take His yoke upon them, He implied that the rest, the peace, the happiness is something like the gift of daily bread—you have to earn it before you can get it.

Happiness is precisely that kind of gift —you learn it, even if you don't earn it. It isn't so much given you from the outside. You grow it from within.

It is the kingdom within that matters—the desire, the disposition, the driving force, the dynamic is there. It is the sovereign intention of the soul. It is the master passion, the dominating idea at work. Therefore, Jesus said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness" that inner, ethical, spiritual reality —"and all other things shall be added unto you."

Spiritual Reality.

If you want happiness you must not expect it to be handed to you by some other person like the title-deeds of any estate, or a beautiful house, or a perfect violin. There is ho happiness in an estate, unless you possess it, and not merely as you own the land, but as you enjoy the landscape. There is no happiness in a beautiful house unless you live happily in it. And a perfect violin produces no music if you cannot play it. There are people who have learned in whatever state to be content — learned! There are people who get more joy out of adverse circumstances than others get out of good fortune. The idea that happiness consists in the abundance of good things that a man possesseth has certainly been exploded. But we needn't rush to the other extreme. You needn't think that you would be happier if you had no house to keep, no work

to do, no business to bear, no responsibilities to carry. And you needn't think you would be happier if you "didn't know so much." If there is no happiness in wealth, there is none in poverty. It is one of the hypocrisies of conventional morality and of cheap novels that it is a blessing to be born in a hovel. It isn't. Froude remarked that freedom from anxiety can be attained by a hard heart and a good digestion. And we may add that some of the happiest men have had 'neither property nor good health. They have been beset by difficulties and burdened with apparently superhuman responsibilities. And they have endured the stings and arrows of outrageous fortune. The art of happiness involves being able to do without things we cannot have and enduring things we fain would be without, and in thinking the most interesting thoughts about man, the universe, and God. The art of being happy is twin to the art of thinking.