Contentment by Henry F. Phelps

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 29, 1867

Contentment.

By Henry F. Phelps

The meaning of this word is satisfaction, as causing the mind to rest without anxiety or fretfulness, let surrounding circumstances be as they may. But how few of us are really contented! How few of us submit to our lot without a murmur! Especially if adversity be our lot, and, even if fortune favor, we are too apt to complain, wishing it was a little different. There are various kinds of contentment. A man may settle down and make himself believe he is contented in the ways of sin; he may make himself feel satisfied, when he is going in direct opposition to the teachings of the word of God, having his conscience seared with a hot iron. The gambler may feel a secret satisfaction as he sweeps from the table his ill-gotten gains. The man who deals out death by drams at ten cents per dose, may make himself believe that he has done nothing wrong, and feel satisfied as he counts his riches, which will “eat as doth a canker,” while he says to himself, “I may as well do it as any one; for if I do not, some one else will.” The man of the world, who has risked his all on a speculation, and lost, may be of that turn of mind that he may be satisfied, and again go at it, and make up for that which was lost. The man of pleasure, as he revels in the halls of mirth, feels a momentary satisfaction—momentary, did I say? Yes. The satisfaction that these all feel is not lasting; it is fleeting as the morning dew. But come, I will tell of a contentment that is real satisfaction. The godly man is satisfied with nothing but a perfect conformity to the will of Heaven; he sees his errors, watches for his defects, and tries to overcome them; when he sees some idol-god he had not before noticed, he casts it behind his back, and presses on; all is consecrated to God, all is laid on the altar. To be sure, he does not forsake this world, or become isolated from society; but he uses “this world as not abusing it,” tries to be faithful in what is committed to him here, that by and by he may have true riches. He is not over-anxious about the things of this life, but still labors on as though he believed that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, and tries to give to him that needeth, and especially to him who “labors in word and doctrine.” If things go wrong, he does not fret; he never finds fault because the wind blows from the wrong quarter, because it is too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry; he never borrows trouble for fear the bugs will destroy his crops, or something else go wrong. Oh! no. In fact, he seems to remember these few sensible words:

“Never trouble trouble, till trouble troubles you, For trouble seldom troubles those who never troubles brew.”

“But godliness with contentment is great gain.” 1 Tim. vi, 6. “And having food and raiment, let us be therewith content.” 8th verse. But this is not real contentment, for there is still a void. As I said, the godly man is satisfied with nothing but perfect conformity to the will of Heaven. The righteous man, leaving every thing of an earthly nature, will let fortune frown and adversity take her place; for, strip from him all the comforts of life, even take most of the seeming necessities, let death, in her pale mantle take his nearest, dearest, and most useful friends, and lay them out of sight, and he will still say, “Thy will be done.” He is satisfied that all will be for his good; but really he is not satisfied. David says, “I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.” Ah! yes; this is perfect satisfaction, to “awake in thy likeness,” or to be “changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” Reader, shall you and I be there? Let us strive.

HENRY F. PHELPS.