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Cultivate Cheerfulness

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Aug 27, 1914

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 36.

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Cultivate Cheerfulness

By Carrie Knight

CARRIE KNIGHT
“’Tis easy enough to be pleasant When life flows by like a song; But the man worth while is the man who will smile When everything goes dead wrong.”
We have all, sometime in life, been brought into what seemed hard places. Troubles, either real or imaginary, come into every life. The man or the woman who has learned to smile when things seem to be in a whirlpool has a great advantage over the one who looks on the dark side, gives up, or succumbs to that disease known as the blues. Some persons are rich in the power to be miserable. They seem to welcome the blues as they would an old-time friend, and leave happiness to knock at the door in vain.
Many a person would be happy if he would set about it and be the architect of his own happiness, instead of expecting others to make it for him. Happiness is a heavenly plant, and will grow and blossom only in gardens cultivated by the owner.
It seems to be so natural for us to imagine that if we were only somewhere else or in another kind of work, were in another city or had a different position, we should be happy. We do not realize that true happiness comes from within, not from without. The woman who is fretful in a cottage would be so in a mansion, and the man who is disgruntled in a village would not be any better humored in a city.
This spirit of unrest and unhappiness is too often seen in professed Christians. Such conditions come from lack of faith in God. He that “giveth us richly all things to enjoy,” wants us to be happy; for he says: “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” “Your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.”
We are exhorted to “rejoice, and be exceeding glad.” Jesus was called a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. But is it not just as true that he was acquainted with joy and happiness? It is recorded that he wept; but we do not infer that he was prone to tears. It is generally the exceptional things that are reported. His path was not strewn all the way with roses. His cup was bitter, but his trials, sorrows, and hardships did not blot out his joy and happiness. With death only a few hours off, he spoke cheerily, and said his desire was to give his joy to his disciples. It was joy that he wanted us to have here and now. “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.” “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.” “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.”
Yesterday I stood on the seashore. It was high tide. I saw the waves as they came rolling in, sullen, angry, moaning, and crying; striking some obstacle, they flung themselves upon the shore, seemingly possessed by demons. I drew back in terror, for it seemed that they would sweep on in their fury and engulf the city. But God has said to those mighty, furious waves, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further.” They hear his word and obey his voice. Their fury dies out, and gently and quietly they creep up to our very feet; then recede. If there is power in God’s word to cause inanimate things to obey, why doubt that power when expressed in the words, “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them”?
Trials will come to polish and fit us for a place in God’s building. We must expect them. I joined a group of men and women, down on the beach, whom I saw digging about in the sand for agates. Soon I had my hands full of pretty stones. I thought they were treasures. On my way home I saw a building on which was this sign: “Agates Polished.” Going inside, I displayed my treasure to a woman experienced in detecting the true from the false.She looked them over, applied the test, and said: “Not one of these is good. They will not stand the polishing, but will fly all to pieces when we apply the polishing wheel. At any rate, they will not receive a polish that will reflect the light.” As I dropped my pretty stones through a hole in the sidewalk, I said to them: “You are like many Christians. God applies the iron to polish them, and they either fly all to pieces or else are so soft that they can never be made to reflect his image; and he has to reject them at last.” Sad condition! Let us turn our back to the darkness, and face the light. Let us be of good cheer amid our trials and tribulations; and then victory will be ours. Let us let God make us optimists, for he bids us, “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.”
Newport, Oregon.