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Text: “These things have I spoken unto you,
that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may
be made full.’’ John 15: 11.
THINK, so far as I am able to judge
human nature, that without question,
the one longing of the human heart is
to be happy. Go where you will,
you will find that humanity every
where in this old world is akin in this
respect. It is, of course, true that here
-and there you find a man or a woman
who has gone so far in the line of
I
despondency that they have given up hope and
have decided never to try to get out of the slough
of despond. Generally, however, such people are
in the lunatic asylum.
FALSE METHODS.
It is very interesting to study the different meth
ods of men in trying to gratify this longing. One
man, for example, thinks he can find happiness in
great possessions. The result is that he is bending
every energy in the direction of money-making.
But he wakes up to realize after he has gotten his
gold that it does not satisfy. I was talking to a
very rich woman at one time, and she said to me,
“Oh, sometimes I wish I did not have a cent! I
am not contented; I am not satisfied, and my money
is the chief cause of my unrest. It is such a respon
sibility; the question of what to do with it, how to
spend it, how to keep from spending it. I am not
as happy as the girl who receives her monthly
salary of thirty dollars.”
Men who have accumulated millions will testify
that what they have gained has not brought them
happiness. Instead, it has brought unrest. They
lie awake at night planning where to invest it so
that they can make more; they must always be
planning so as not to lose it.
Another favorite method for the pursuit of happi
ness is by pleasure-seeking. Here is a woman who
wants to be going all the time. She forgets that
this life will break her down; that the end of her
search in that direction must come soon. She
joins every card club in town, and every other kind
of club. She is in a continual round of gaiety, but
finally she has to acknowledge that there is no hap
piness to be found there.
Then there are those who try to get pleasure
of life out of traveling. They are always going.
They get tired of this place, and think that they
will be satisfied just a little further on, and so it
goes.
So we might go on mentioning method after
method adopted by people with the thought that
it will make them happy. Man goes on trying one
thing after the other, and sometimes almost comes
to the conclusion that after all there is nothing that
can make mankind happy. Have you reached this
conclusion? If so, I desire to dispel it, for there is
one method, and but one, by which you can attain
happiness.
As I see it, there are three things that constitute
a happy life, first, a right perspective, second, a
right purpose, third, a right plan.
You need never come talking to me about gratify
ing the desire for happiness so long as you have
not a right perspective. Happiness is a soul
quality. It can never be reached in its fullest and
broadest sense so long as we are endeavoring to
reach it through material things. It is not the
pampering of the desires of this body that brings
us happiness. In the beginning God breathed into
man an immortal soul, and it is through that soul
that happiness must be obtained.
Jesus in His sermon on the mount said, “Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
That is the perspective-seeing God. The seeing of
God is to bring happiness. Wo see that illustrated
in every phase of life. The man who sees God’s
hand in everything is the man whose soul responds
to the touch of that Hand.
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb. Len G. Rroughton, D. D.
Steuographically reported for The Golden Age. —Copyright applied for
The Golden Age for July 2, 1908.
THE POINT OF VIEW.
Take an oft repeated illustration. Two men are
standing gazing at Niagara Falls. Listen to their
conversation, which is indicative of the -perspective
of these men. One' of them says, “What a sight!
All this power going to waste, when it might be
harnessed and made to run thousands of wheels,
producing for somebody immense wealth.”
The other man does not see the spinning of wheels
nor hear the hum of machinery. He is gazing at
dazzling rainbows and hearing beautiful music as
the waters dash down. The intense beauty of these
blending colors and the mighty roar of this water
speaks to him of the omnipotence of God. He
remembers how little and puny the work of man is
when compared to the handiwork of God.
They separate. The first man does not enjoy
what he remembers of the water fall. He is think
ing of the money that he might make out of it; he
stops in his busy career long enough to dream of
what he could do if he could get possession of it.
The other man remembers how God spoke to his
soul as he stood watching. He remembers that he
is in the care of that omnipotent One who created
Niagara, and he is happy, trusting in Him.
Invite two men into your flower garden to see
your roses. One man, as he examines the roses
with a critical eye, remarks that those are very
fine roses; that they ought to bring a dollar a
dozen. The other man does not think of the dollar
a dozen. He sees in that rose the handiwork of
the Divine Artist. He notices how perfectly it is
formed. He sees that it is without a flaw; he
remembers that it is growing according to the
will of Him who made it. He notices the beauty of
the colors, and remembers that no human artist
could have painted it that way. He sees God in
that flower, and as he notes the delicate way in
which it is formed, and the careful blending of
the colors, he remembers that the same Artist who
planned, formed and painted that rose, has planned
and is unfolding his own life, and he is happy.
But we may have ever so broad a perspective, if
it goes no further than that it is worth nothing.
We must have a noble perspective, as high as God,
and then we must have a right purpose, in order
that our hearts may attain unto it. It is said that
Garibaldi, before he gave himself to the cause of
liberating Italy from the power of the pope, spent
an entire day locked in his room. He had the
perspective. He knew that God was in a different
form of religion from what was grinding his people
down, but he knew that it would undoubtedly bring
great suffering and hardship to him if he should en
deavor to change the state of affairs. He says,
“The happiest day of my life was after I made up
my mind that, let come what would, my life should
be spent in the cause of Italy’s freedom.”
Livingstone said, “The happiest day I ever spent
was the day when I decided to give myself to
Africa.” George Muller, the great father of the
orphan home said, “It was not when I had behind
me a great church with the confidence that it would
furnish my support, that I was happiest; the hap
piest day was when I turned my back upon every
thing else and gave myself to the cause of orphan
children.”
I remember, when I was in college, one night I
was awakened about two or three o’clock by a loud
rap on the door. I said, “Come in,” and a fellow
student came rushing in, saying, “I never was so
happy in my life! I have settled the question,
and have given myself up for China.”
THE PEACE OF GOD.
My brethren, who of us has not had that experi
ence? How many of us can look back to the time
when, after days, perhaps weeks and months and
years of struggle, we came to the place where we
said, “Here, Lord, I give myself to you, ’tis all
that I can do,” and that
“Peace, peace, sweet peace,
Wonderful gift from above,”
came into our hearts and lives.
Have you not felt the same thrill when you have
come face to face with temptation? Some time,
when Satan has appeared as an angel of light with
alluring promises, and you have been able by the
Power of God to withstand him, and when the
struggle has passed, oh, what a calm! Such a sense
of relief, such joy of victory! We come away from
there, with less confidence' in ourselves, because we
know if we had been left alone in the struggle,
we would have lost, but we come away with more
confidence in God. Only the man.who meets temp
tation in the power of God can be theriiappy man.
So long as we comfort ourselves with the thought
that all mankind is weak and that God does not
expect anyone to be perfect, just so long we shall
never know happiness. It is the man who can
look the tempter in the face, conscious of his
weakness but conscious of the Divine power that
upholds him, who is the happy man.
The third condition of a happy life is that of
having a right plan. We may have a right per
spective and a right purpose, but unless these take
shape in the right program for life they will react
upon us only to make us miserable. Jesus Christ,
as our preceptor, must give us the plan.; and what
is it? Let us see the one that He adopted for His
life, and He has told us to follow Him. It is a
simple statement: “Have this mind in you which
was also in Christ Jesus, who existing in the form
of God counted not the being on an equality with
God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself,
taking the form of a servant, being made in the
likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a
man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even
unto death, yea, the death of the cross.”
I would have you look at this program of Jesus,
for it is very different from that which man adopts.
The world’s program is self-ease; the Master’s
program was self-denial.
The world’s program is to accumulate posses
sions; the Master’s program was dispossession.
The world’s program is liberty; the Master’s
program is service.
The world’s program is life; the Master’s pro
gram was death.
We must know that the way to life is byway
of death. On one occasion there came to Christ
certain Greeks, desiring to see Him. Jesus said
unto them, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the
earth and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it
bringeth forth much fruit.” Then He applied his
illustration, “Whosoever would save his life must
lose it.”
Would you be happy? If you have wealth, would
you be happy in its possession? Your money is
the seed that must be buried. It must be deposited
in His cause, and it -will spring up bringing you an
hundred-fold happiness. It will bear fruit on
which you will live when money has perished and
time has ceased to be.
A ould you enjoy your home —those carpeted
floors, those cushioned chairs, that silver on the
table? hon now see it for your own ease, you walk
on those carpets, sit on those chairs and eat with
that silver. Who gets anything out of it but you
and yours? Your home must be devoted to the
cause where it would do the most good.
The best illustration that I have ever seen of
this was in an English home where I was privileged
at one time to be a guest. It was the handsome
est home that I had ever visited. It had in it an
immense reception hall which held three hundred
people. In it was a great pipe organ, of the finest
make. This home was built by a man who had seen
God and had resolved that his life should point
others to Him. In that reception hall he gathered
together once a week the poorest people he could
find. He provided the highest class of entertain-
