A Happy New Year | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 7, 1903

A Happy New Year.

They may make it so, if they will. But happiness will not come by seeking it. Sought in itself, it is as illusive, inconstant, and treacherous as a will-o'-the-wisp. It will lead its devotee in all the byways of sin and destruction, and, at its very best, will disappoint. If you desire happiness, forget yourself and seek to relieve the unhappiness of others. Put away the sin, but live no negative life. Be willing to sacrifice what it seems would give you great pleasure, to buy up the opportunity to make some other soul happy. The happiness which will come to you will more than compensate the loss. The harvest will pay for the self-denial in the breaking of the soil, in the seed-sowing, in the cultivation of the crop.

It is no royal road which leads to happiness; it is the road of self-denial and burden-bearing; but if the journey be rightly undertaken and pursued, it will be a happy road, nevertheless. Birds will trill in the branches of the trees beside the way, the babbling water will sing its clear, liquid notes down the declivities, and heart songs and smiles will gladden all the way. In the way of righteousness is life, and in fulness of life is happiness.