Happiness Hunters by Cornelius
Tyree A higher degree of personal piety will promote a higher degree
of personal happiness. Sin and sorrow are bound together
by adamantine chains. Hence man increases in misery
as he increases in sin. It is upon this principle that
the devil is the most miserable being in the universe, because
he is the most depraved. So, on the other hand, there
is an inseparable connection between holiness and happiness. God is the most happy being in
the universe because he is the most holy. And the happiness
of his people is just in proportion as they resemble him in righteousness
and true holiness. Heaven is a world of supreme
happiness because it is a world of supreme holiness. Hell is
a world of supreme misery because sin is there fully developed. God has so ordered it that our
comfort and happiness in this world can only be found in a
pious life. For the last six thousand years,
mankind have been happiness hunters. In all ages and lands, the eager
query has been, who will show us any good? But every device
has been a failure. The recorded and unrecorded experience
of all has been, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. We can no more expect to find
happiness in the pursuits and objects of this world than we
may expect to find luscious grapes growing at the icy North Pole. But in the likeness and service
of Christ is found a happiness which is pure, elevating, perennial,
inexhaustible, a happiness that will go with us in all conditions,
all lands, and all worlds. The great cause of all the sadness
and depression in the followers of Christ is the small degree
of their piety. The only reason why they are
disconsolate is because they follow the Lord afar off. One
single, uncrucified, unbemoaned sin will not only destroy all
pious enjoyment, but open the soul to the devil with his whole
black train of guilt and misery. It matters not what this sin
is. Any one sin habitually indulged in, whether it is pride, malice,
backbiting, covetousness, filling the mind with unholy images,
or murmuring under adverse providences, will exclude from the soul all
pious enjoyment. After all, the great secret of
being happy is to be holy. He who grows in practical piety
has opened a thousand sources of true bliss. The golden fruit
of happiness grows only on the tree of holiness. If happiness
is sought in any other way than by being holy, it is sought in
vain. This Puritan devotional has been
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