I ask my readers to fix in their minds the account of things
essential to happiness, which I have attempted to give. Dismiss
from your thoughts the many mistaken notions on this subject,
they are like counterfeit money. To be truly happy, the wants of
your soul and conscience must be satisfied; to be truly happy,
your joy must be founded on something more than this world can
give you; to be truly happy, you must be able to look on every
side–above, below, behind, before–and feel that all is right.
This is real, genuine happiness: this is the happiness I have in
view when I urge your attention to the subject of this paper.
II. In the next place, “let me expose some common mistakes about
the way to be happy.”
There are several roads which are thought by many to lead to
happiness. In each of these roads thousands and tens of
thousands of men and women are continually traveling. Each
fancies that if he could only attain all he wants he would be
happy. Each fancies, if he does not succeed, that the fault is
not in his road, but in his own lack of luck and good fortune.
And everyone seems ignorant of the fact that they are chasing
after shadows. They have started in a wrong direction: they are
seeking that which can never be found in the place where they
seek it.
I will mention by name some of the principal delusions about
happiness. I do it in love, and kindness, and compassion to
men’s souls. I believe it to be a public duty to warn people
against cheats, quacks, and impostors. Oh how much trouble and
sorrow it might save my readers, if they would only believe what
I am going to say!
It is an utter mistake to suppose the “position and fame alone”
can give happiness. The kings, presidents, and rulers of this
world are not necessarily happy men. They have troubles and
crosses, which none know but themselves; they see a thousand
evils, which they are unable to remedy; they are slaves working
in golden chains, and have less real liberty than any in the
world; they have burdens and responsibilities laid upon them,
which are a daily weight on their hearts. The Roman Emperor
Antonine often said, that “the imperial power was an ocean of
miseries.” Queen Elizabeth, when she heard a milk-maid singing,
wished that she had been born to a lot like her’s. Never did the
poet write a truer word than when he said, “Uneasy lies the head
that wears a crown.”
It is an utter mistake to suppose that “riches alone” can give
happiness. They can enable a man to command and possess
everything but inward peace. They cannot buy a cheerful spirit
and a light heart. There is anxiety in the getting of them, and
anxiety in the keeping of them, anxiety in the using of them, and
anxiety in the disposing of them, anxiety in the gathering, and
anxiety in the scattering of them. He is a wise man who said
that “money” was only another name for “trouble.”
It is an utter mistake to suppose that “learning and science
alone” can give happiness. They may occupy a man’s time and
attention, but they cannot really make him happy. They that
increase knowledge often “increase sorrow:” the more they learn,
the more they discover their own ignorance (Ecclesiastes 1:18).
The heart wants something as well as the head: the conscience
needs food as well as the intellect. All the secular knowledge
in the world will not give a man joy and gladness, when he thinks
about sickness, and death, and the grave. They that have climbed
the highest, have often found themselves solitary, dissatisfied,
and empty of peace. The learned Selden, at the close of his
life, confessed that all his learning did not give him such
comfort as four verses of Titus (2:11-14):
For the grace of God that brings salvation
has appeared to all men. It teaches us to
say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions,
and to live self-controlled, upright and
godly lives in this present age, while we
wait for the blessed hope – the glorious
appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus
Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us
from all wickedness and to purify for Himself
a people that are his very own, eager to do
what is good.
It is an utter mistake to suppose that “idleness alone” can give
happiness. The laborer who gets up at five in the morning, and
goes out to work all day in a cold clay ditch, often thinks, as
he walks past the rich man’s house, “What a fine thing it must be
to have no work to do.” Poor fellow! He doesn’t know what he is
saying. The most miserable creature on earth is the man who has
nothing to do. Work for the hands or work for the mind is
absolutely essential to human happiness. Without it the mind
feeds upon itself, and the whole inward man becomes diseased.
The machinery within “will” work, and without something to work
upon, will often wear itself to pieces. There was no idleness in
the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had to “work it and take care
of it.” There will be no idleness in heaven: God’s “servants
will serve Him.” Oh, be very sure the idlest man is the man most
truly unhappy! (Genesis 2:15; Revelation 22:3)
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
