I have learned to be content, whatever
the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need,
and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret
of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or
hungry, whether living in plenty or in need. A happy heart makes
the face cheerful. A cheerful heart has a continual
feast. Proverbs 15 verse 15 A cheerful
heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Proverbs
17 verse 22 One of the divinest secrets of
a happy life is the art of extracting comfort and sweetness from every
circumstance. We must develop the habit of
looking on the bright side. It is a magic wand, whose power
exceeds that of any fabled magicians, to change all things into blessings. Those who take cheerful views
find happiness everywhere, and yet how rare is the habit! The multitude prefer to walk
on the dark side of the paths of life. There are those who
take to gloom as a bat to darkness, or as a vulture to carrion. They would rather nurse a misery
than cherish a joy. They always find the dark side
of everything, if there is a dark side to be found. They appear
to be conscientious grumblers, as if it were their duty to extract
some essence of misery from every circumstance. The weather is
either too cold or too hot, too wet or too dry. They never find
anything to their taste. Nothing escapes their criticism. They find fault with the food
on the table, with the bed in which they lie, with the railroad
train or steamboat on which they travel, with the government and
its officials, with merchant and workman, in a word, with
the world at large and in detail. They are chronic grumblers. Instead
of being content in the state in which they are, they have
learned to be discontented, no matter how happy their lot. If they had been placed in the
Garden of Eden, they would have discovered something with which
to find fault. Their wretched habit empties
life of all possible joy and turns every cup to gall. On the other hand, there are
rare people who always take cheerful views of life. They look at the
bright side. They find some joy and beauty
everywhere. If the sky is covered with clouds,
they will point out to you the splendor of some great cloud-bank,
piled up like mountains of glory. When the storm rages, instead
of fears and complaints, they find an exquisite pleasure in
contemplating its grandeur and majesty. In the most faulty picture,
they see some bit of beauty which charms them. In the most disagreeable
person, they discover some kindly trait, or some bud of promise. In the most disheartening circumstances,
they find something for which to be thankful, some gleam of
cheer, breaking in through the thick gloom. when a ray of sunlight
streamed through a crack in the shutter and made a bright patch
on the floor in the darkened room, the little dog rose from
his dark corner and went and lay down in the one sunny spot. and these cheerful people live
in the same philosophical way. If there is one beam of cheer
or hope anywhere in their lot, they will find it. They have
a genius for happiness. They always make the best out
of circumstances. They are happy as travellers.
They are contented as boarders. Their good nature never fails. They take a cheerful view of
every perplexity. Even in sorrow, their faces are
illumined, and songs come from the chambers where they weep.
Such people have a wondrous ministry in this world. They are like
apple trees when covered with blossoms, pouring a sweet fragrance
all around them. It may be worthwhile to linger
a little on the philosophy of living which produces such results. Some people are born with sunny
dispositions, with large hopefulness and joyfulness, and with eyes
for the bright side of life. Others are naturally disposed
to gloom. Physical causes have, no doubt,
much to do with the discontent of many lives. Dyspepsia, or
a disordered liver, is responsible for much bad temper, low spirits,
and melancholy. And yet, while there is this
predisposition in temperament on the one hand toward hopefulness
and on the other toward depression and gloom, it is still largely
a matter of culture and habit for which we are individually
responsible. Like the Apostle Paul, we can
train ourselves to take cheerful views of life, and to extract
contentment and enjoyment from any circumstances. Rejoice in
the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice! This is clearly a most important
part of Christian culture. Joyfulness is everywhere commended
as a Christian duty. Discontent is a most detestable
fault. Morbidness is a sin. Fretfulness
grieves God. It tells of unbelief. It destroys
the soul's peace. It disfigures the beauty of Christian
character. It not only makes us soured and
unhappy in our own hearts, but its influence on others is bad. We have no right to project the
gloom of our discontent over any other life. Our attitude
is to be ever toward joy. There is nothing so depressing
in its effect upon others as morbidness. Also, for the sake
of those among whom we live, and upon whose lives we are for
ever, unconsciously either casting shadows or pouring sunshine,
we should seek to learn this Christian art of contentment. What are some of the elements
of this divine philosophy of living? One is patient submission
to all the ills and hardships of life, which are unavoidable. No person's lot is perfect. No mortal ever yet found a set
of circumstances without some unpleasant feature. Sometimes
it is in our power to modify the discomforts. Our trouble
is often of our own making. Much of it needs only a little
energetic activity on our part to remove it. We are fools if
we live on amid ills and hardships which a reasonable industry would
change to comforts, or even pleasures. But, if there are unavoidable
ills or burdens which we cannot, by any energy of our own, remove
or lighten, they must be submitted to, without murmuring. We have a saying that, What cannot
be cured, must be endured. But, the very phrasing tells
of an unyielding heart. There is submission to the inevitable,
but no reconciliation to it. True contentment does not chafe
under disappointments and losses, but accepts them, becomes reconciled
to them, and at once looks about to find something good in them.
This is the secret of happy living, and when we come to think of
it, how senseless it is to struggle against the inevitable. Discontent
helps nothing. It never removes a hardship,
or makes a burden any lighter, or brings back a vanished pleasure. One never feels better for complaining. It only makes him wretched. A
starling in a cage struggles against its fate, flies against
the wire walls, and beats upon them in an effort to be free,
until its wings are all bruised and bleeding. A canary is shut
in another cage, accepts the restraint, perches itself upon
its bar, and sings. Surely the canary is wiser than
the starling. We would also get far along toward
contentment if we ceased to waste time dreaming over unattainable
earthly good. Only a few people can be great
or rich. The mass of people must always
remain in ordinary circumstances. Suppose that each of the forty
million people in the world were millionaires, who could be found
to do the work that must be done. Or, suppose that all were great
poets. Imagine, the forty million people
in the world, all writing poetry. Who would write the prose? A
little serious reflection will show, that the world needs only
a very few great and conspicuous lives, while it needs millions
for its varied industries, its plain duties, its hard toil. Also, a large amount of our discontent
arises from our envy of those who have what we have not. There are many who lose all the
comfort of their lives in coveting the better things that some other
one possesses. How foolish! There are several
considerations which ought to modify this miserable feeling
of envy, which brings so much bitterness. If we could know
the secret history of the life that we envy for its splendor
and prosperity, perhaps we would not exchange for it our lowlier
life with its plain circumstances. Certain it is, that contentment
is not so apt to dwell in palaces or on thrones, as in the homes
of the humble. The tall peaks rise nearer the
skies, but the winds smite them more fiercely. Then why should
I hide my one talent in the earth, because it is not ten? Why should
I make my life a failure in the place allotted to me, while I
sit down and dream over unattainable things? Why should I miss my
one golden opportunity, however small, while I envy some other
one what seems his greater opportunity? Countless people make themselves
wretched by vainly trying to grasp far-away joys, while they
leave untouched and despised the numerous little joys and
bright bits of happiness which lie close to their hand. As one
has written, stretching out his hand to catch the stars, man
forgets the flowers at his feet. So beautiful! so fragrant, so
multitudinous, and so various. The secret of happiness lies
in extracting pleasures from the things we have, while we
enter no mad, vain chase after impossible dreams. Another way
to train ourselves to cheerful views of life is resolutely to
refuse to be frightened at shadows, or even to see trouble where
there is none. Half or more of the things that
most worry us have no existence but in a disordered imagination. Many things that in the dim distance
look like shapes of peril, when they draw near to them, melt
into harmless shadows, or even change into forms of friendliness. Much of the gloomy tinge that
many people see on everything is caused by the colour of the
glasses through which they look. We look out through our blue
glasses, and then wonder what makes everything blue. The greater
part of our discontent is caused by some imaginary trouble which
never really comes. We can do much toward curing
ourselves of fretting and worrying by refusing to be fooled by a
foreboding imagination. We also need to learn ever to
make the best of things. There will always be cloudy days. No one can live without meeting
discomforts, disappointments, and hardships. No wisdom, no
industry of ours can eliminate from our experience all that
is disagreeable or painful. But shall we allow the one discordant
note in the grand symphony to mar for us all the noble music? Shall we permit the one discomfort
in our home to cast a cloud over all its pleasures, and embitter
all its joys? Shall we not seek for the bright
side? There is really sunshine enough
in the darkest day to make any ordinary mortal happy, if he
only has eyes to see it. It is marvellous what a trifling
thing will give joy to a truly grateful heart. Mr. Park, in the bleak desert, found
the greatest delight in a single tuft of moss growing in the sand. It saved him from despair, and
from death, for it filled his soul with joy and hope. There
is no lot in life so dreary that it has not at least its one little
patch of beauty, or its one wee flower looking up out of the
dreariness, like a smile of God. Even if the natural eye can see
no brightness in the cloud, the faith of the Christian knows
that there is good in everything for the child of God. There are
reasons, no doubt, why no perfect happiness can be found in this
world. If there were no thorns in our
pillow here on earth, would we care to pillow our heads on the
bosom of divine love? Our father makes our nest rough
to drive us to seek the warmer, softer nest prepared for us in
his own love. To each one who is truly in Christ,
and who really loves God, there is a promise of good out of all
things. We know that all things work
together for the good of those who love God, to those who are
called according to his purpose. Romans 8 verse 28 There is a
wondrous chemistry in the divine providence which, out of the
commingling of life's strange elements, always produces blessing. Thus faith's vision sees good
in all things, however dark they may appear, and ill in nothing. We need but living faith in God's
love and care to us, to enable us to take a cheerful view of
any experience. There is another purely Christian
element in the culture of contentment which must not be overlooked.
The more the heart becomes engaged with God and its affections enchained
about Him, the less is it disturbed by the little roughnesses and
hardships of earth, things that fret childhood, have no power
to break the peace of manhood. As we grow into higher spiritual
manhood, and become more and more filled with Christ, we shall
rise above the power of earth's discontents. We shall be happy,
even amid trials and losses, amid discomforts and disappointments,
because our life is hid with Christ in God, and we have food
to eat for which the world knows not. Thus we may train ourselves
away from all gloomy and despondent habits and experiences, toward
cheerfulness and hope. The lesson, well learned, will
repay our greatest efforts. It will bring some new pleasure
into every moment. It will paint beauty for us on
the dreariest desert. It will plant flowers for us
along every step of the rugged road. It will bring music for
us out of every sighing wind and wailing storm. It will fill
the darkest night with star beams. It will make us sunny-hearted
Christians, pleasing God and blessing the world.