The Happy Secret | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 3, 1874

The Happy Secret.

[A subscriber writes: I send the following conversation, taken from the Advocate of Christian Holiness, hoping it may be of benefit to the readers of the REVIEW.]

Good morning, good morning, neighbor. How bright and happy you always look! It is a mystery to me how you can be so happy—you who appear to have so little.

So little? ah! you don't know that I have everything.

What! hid away in a private place, or deposited at the bank?

No; I am not such a fool as that.

What then? are you heir to some millionaire that is very low, and not expected to live?

No, indeed; guess again.

Have you hit upon some invention, struck some lucky idea, that you are confident of turning into a fortune?

Not a bit of it.

Well, I am puzzled. I am sure I can't imagine where the wealth can be that makes you so joyful. Did you not say you had great possessions—in fact, everything you wanted? Do tell me about it.

Why, it comes about in this way. Sometime ago, I gave up all right and title to myself. I executed a quit-claim deed, and made over everything to God. Of course, since then, strictly speaking, I have not owned anything—not a cent of money, not an inch of land, not a particle of praise or blame, not a pound of strength of any kind. Of myself, I know nothing, and can do nothing. But, when I gave up myself to God, God gave me himself in exchange; and so, possessing him, I really possess everything. Don't you call that a good bargain?

Most certainly, if it is as you say. But I confess I don't quite understand it.

Well, it is difficult to explain; but, when you get the experience, you will know all about it. You see, he who gets possession of the capital in a campaign gets possession of the country; and to have the monarch is to have all the treasures of the monarch. So to have God is to have all that God makes and governs; and that is everything. You look a little skeptical; but see here. You call me, I suppose, a poor man; but, in reality, I am very rich. I have all the benefits of riches, all they can possibly supply, and far more than they usually do supply, and that, too, without any of their troubles and burdens. I have not to vex my brain all day with stocks and notes and shares. I am not worried lest this calamity or that should happen, and leave me penniless. But I have plenty of food and clothing, and ample security for the future. I have all that is necessary for bodily comfort, and I have a contented mind. What more can there be? What would it amount to if I had more delicate dishes on the table? It would only be the means of increasing disease. What would it help if I had fine clothing and rich attire? It would only make it more difficult for me to be humble. What would it avail if I had a large bank account? I should be so much less likely to trust in God, and so much more exposed to the power of wicked men and evil times. I have all the world's wealth that I need for present use, and the rest is held in reserve as an unfailing fund to supply my future wants. I am an integral part of the Firm that owns the universe, and not a need can be unmet, not a desire unfulfilled.

But would it not be well if you had a little more ready cash? Think how much good you could do in a great many directions.

No; I believe I have all that is best. I feel sure that when the Lord has a call for me to do good in that way, he will put the means into my hands. When he sees that I am the right one to be his disbursing agent in those particulars, I shall have the funds at my disposal. It is a very difficult thing to administer a large property with perfect righteousness—a very difficult thing to give away large sums so as to do more good than harm; and probably I am not fitted for that work. Meanwhile, I am satisfied with this thought: I am doing all that God wishes me to do, and that is all I wish to do. I am not so much concerned to do a great amount of good as I am to do the Lord's will. That I can do in a small station as effectually as in a large. The will of God, done simply and lovingly from moment to moment, as he makes it known, this is the whole secret of that happiness of mine on which you remark.

Well, I cannot stop longer this morning to hear about it; but I shall certainly come again some day, that you may explain to me more particularly how I, too, can get hold of this blessed secret. In the meantime, do not forget to pray for me.