Cheerfulness by Henry F. Phelps

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 20, 1866

Cheerfulness.

By Henry F. Phelps

Why is it that the shining of the sun is the general rule, and its being clouded the exception? Why is it that Nature is always cheerful? Whether it be in summer or winter, warm or cold; whether in the falling leaf, or the budding tree; whether it be in the driven snow, or the more quiet rain-drops of mid-summer; we can see cheerfulness, something that will do our hearts good to look at. But man, made in the image of his Maker, will go from morning to night, day in and day out, scolding, fretting, and storming about, as though this was the thing for which he was made.

But some who think it a sin to scold and fret will wear a sober face, yea, more, a scowl, a frown; a cloud will be visible from morn till night, as though a storm was gathering, but never bursting. For my part, I had rather see the deep black clouds, the heavy thunder, and the big drops descending in torrents, and then the bright sunshine, than to see dull, heavy clouds, the continual mist, but no storm. If it is impossible for individuals to wear a cheerful countenance at all times, let the clouds gather and burst; but be sure and get off alone somewhere first, so as not to darken another's pathway. A better way would be, when we feel the clouds gathering, to go away in secret, and pray to our Father who seeth in secret, that we may be rewarded openly, with a cheerful, healthful countenance, ready to distribute a few rays of light to all we meet. I am persuaded that despondency arises more from imaginary evils, than from real ones. I often think in the language of another, “This world is not so bad as some would like to make it.” Although this earth bears the marks of sin, and the curse, and is not a desirable place to live in, in comparison with the better world, yet if people would resolve to come down, as it were, and live for the present, with a determination to make our present trials as light as possible, never borrowing trouble for the future, but, being contented, cheerful, and happy, all would go off much better.

What did Paul mean when he said that we should be “sociable”? If he did not have his eye upon some of his brethren, say down here in these last days, who were liable to go to an extreme in obeying the injunctions “to be sober,” and to “be diligent in business,” I do not know whom he did mean. They are so “sober” that they never smile in their families, so “diligent in business” that they never find time to do anything to make home agreeable.

But, as I write this, I become more and more convinced that the chips fly in my own face. That the proverb, “Physician, heal thyself,” will apply at home so well that I am determined to make an effort to reform. I know that often when I see myself in the glass, I wonder if that is the countenance I have been wearing all the morning, and do not wonder that the birds did n't sing as sweetly as usual, and that somehow or other things went wrong. But I am thankful that I have at times had grace to turn away with a brighter face, and go to the table with a resolution to try to “be sociable.”

“Oh, let the ungentle spirit learn from hence, A small unkindness is a great offence, and so live that others may admire in us a “happy human face.”

HENRY F. PHELPS.