True Happiness by H. E. Sawyer-Hopkins

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 16, 1915

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 42, No. 11.

True Happiness

By H. E. Sawyer-Hopkins

The Creator formed this world for man's happiness. “The beauty that covers the earth is a token of God's love. We may behold it in the everlasting hills, in the lofty trees, in the opening buds and delicate flowers.” He daily crowns us with blessings. Time and space would not permit us to enumerate all of God's bountiful gifts that He literally showers upon us.

“Rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you.” Deut. 26: 11. The apostle James says, “Count them happy which endure.”

There Is Health in It

The wise man says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.” “Gratitude, rejoicing, benevolence, trust in God's love and care—these are health's greatest safeguards. To the Israelites they were to be the very keynote of life.”

What is ever gained by murmuring and complaining because of blessings withheld? Our great Benefactor says, “No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” But “happiness is not in things, but in us.”

A life of usefulness is the road that leads to true happiness. “A thousand doors are open before us.” “Often we lament the scanty resources available; but were Christians thoroughly in earnest, they could multiply the resources a thousandfold. It is selfishness, self-indulgence, that bars the way to our usefulness.”

H. E. Sawyer-Hopkins.