p. 15 | An Antidote for Blues

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 7, 1912

An Antidote for Blues

Of course the Christian ought never to have the blues, but very excellent Christians are sometimes thus afflicted. This would be bad enough if the malady affected only the one individual, but as is well known, this is a contagious and infectious disorder. So it is of tenfold importance that any case that develops should be immediately isolated and cured.

Sometimes the remedy can be administered by another person. There is a class of chronic cases in which this is necessary, as the individual afflicted refuses to be cured. He really seems to enjoy being miserable.

But we are addressing ourselves only to acute cases, and would suggest that on the first indication of an attack you think of the happiest person of all your acquaintance and consider the basis of his happiness.

You will find that the rule of his life is to “trust in the Lord, and do good.” Happiness is a by-product in his life. You must consider despondency equivalent to distrust of God, and any moment spent in such a mood, as a shirking of some immediate task of helpfulness. All of us wish to be happy, and the universal human instinct is to go after that which we want. There are some other blessings besides happiness that are not won in this way, but this is chief of them all.

Your mind can not dwell long upon the state of a really happy person, with his tranquil trust in God and his joyous service of his fellow men, before you realize that the same blessings are open to you, and that whatever your failings or shortcomings, whatever your outward circumstances or limitations, even regardless of your sufferings and privations, there belongs to you inalienably “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding.” — Northwestern Christian Advocate.