HOW TO GET HAPPINESS by Frank C. Kelley

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 23, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 50.

HOW TO GET HAPPINESS.

By Frank C. Kelley

THE Creator so constituted the human mind that, after hearing the evidence, it cannot avoid forming a conclusion. The object of evidence or testimony is to establish a fact. The fact, when once established, cannot be changed, except by changing the evidence.

By hearing the evidence the conclusion is formed. And right here man's true self is exercised, and this is the right to choose. Evidence establishes the fact. Evidence drives the mind to a conclusion. The right to choose being exercised, the true man is revealed to the physical eye by the acts of the body; to the mental eye the character reveals him. To accept or reject the fact does not change it. The change is in the individual and not in the fact. To accept is faith; to reject is unbelief; and the act of doing is the works which always follow.

Christ suffered for us in the flesh. He chose to suffer, because it was the mind of God that in so doing he could save man. He chose, and by choosing showed his faith in God.

1 Peter 4:1 says, "Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind," that is, with the mind of Christ, whose mind was the mind of God, the Father. The mind that was in Christ, which mind he chose, led him to die. The same mind in the heart of man also leads him to die. But is it the body of man that dies when armed with the mind of God?—No; it is not the body, but the fleshly, carnal mind. In the exercise of the right to choose, that right says to the lusts and desires of the flesh, "You are not the rulers here." That "right," armed with the mind of God, appeals to God to uphold it in its kingdom, by helping it to maintain its freedom to choose.

In the beginning God gave to man, as well as to angels, the power to choose, and by the use of it show their loyalty to him and his government. Man, while in the Garden of Eden, was in God, and God in him. Not that God was not in the world outside of Eden as well, but when man chose to obey the voice of the serpent (Satan), he stepped out of God, he by choice separated himself from God, and was, therefore, in the world without God and without hope. Just as Paul says:

"That at that time ye were without Christ, . . . having no hope, and without God in the world." Eph. 2:12.

The mind of God towards man is that he may be saved. Therefore, he sent his Son into the world, that man by choosing him might be brought back into God, and God into man, as at the beginning.

Now for God to compel man to accept his Son as his Saviour would be to destroy the right to choose, and to take away this right man would cease to be man. He might live, he might have power to transact business, in fact, possess every other faculty he now has, still he would no longer possess an individuality. Therefore God says, "Come now, and let us reason together." "Put me in remembrance; let us plead together; declare thou, that thou mayest be justified." "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." "The Spirit and the bride say, Come." "Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come."

Come, come, is God's invitation to man. Come, let us talk over the differences that exist between us. No matter how many, or how great your sins may be, come anyway. "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." Yes, just listen, "for mine own sake" will I do it. "From all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." And as evidence that God will do all that he has promised, he sent his Son into the world, that man by faith in him might be restored to his union with God. Therefore it follows that man, in order to reach God, must choose him, but before he will choose, he must hear the evidence which establishes the fact that God means what he says, and has sent his Son to this world so that man could be brought back into God. This evidence when heard causes him to form a conclusion, but this is not enough. He must now choose, and he cannot avoid it. To accept Christ, and God through Christ, means that self must die. Man's will must be lost, entirely lost. But to be lost to self is to be found in God. What can he do?—He can simply choose. That he can do, and that is all he ever can do. That is his part, a continual choosing. God does the rest, yet gives the credit to the individual, simply because he chooses God. This is true liberty, and is only found in obedience to God.

We will, or choose, to do an act; that act repeated forms a habit. Habit, when formed, binds the will, or the power to choose. It binds the power that created it, and thereby destroys man's free moral agency, thus making him a slave, a bound man. Satan promised man more liberty than God gave him. Man chose to accept Satan's promise, only to find himself powerless to do any longer as he wished. A moment's thought will show that anything, or power of whatsoever kind, that forces, or in any manner hinders the full and free exercise of the right of choice, is not from God, for God accepts only the free choice.

Christ by his death burst the bands that Satan had placed upon man's right to choose, and once more has given man a chance to exercise all the powers given him originally.

Christ says to every individual: You are free. I have redeemed you. I have paid the price to set you at liberty. You are free. All that you have to do is to choose to accept your freedom. Reader, arise, and take your rights. Why let Satan have rule over you? You are free. Christ says that you are, and that makes it so. Just exercise your right to choose, and choose God; that is your part; he then will do the rest. He will fulfill Eze. 36:25-27 to you.

By choosing God's will you arm yourself with the mind of God, which mind Christ had, and had it because he chose to have it. That mind led him (Christ) to suffer and die for mankind, the just for the unjust. But in choosing God's way Christ emptied himself of himself, and then, armed with the mind of God, he could say, as he always did, "I came not to do my will, but the will of Him that sent me." So it must be with us. By choosing him we turn self out of self. We step, by choosing him, back into the same relation to God that man had before he sinned, with the exception that our bodies are not as yet restored; and our work is to bring them into harmony with God. This is done by refusing to permit the desires of the flesh to rule over the right of choice, or will power. We are to govern the body, the affections, and all the desires of the mind. We can do this only by a constant choosing of God.

Here, we believe, is the secret of the Christian's happy life,—"a living choice of God." Under temptation and trial, in sunshine and storm, it enables us to say, "It is all for the best," for God says, "All things work together for good to them that love God." I am his, and he is mine. My Father, my God, my All. What is left, reader, for us but joy, peace, and gladness? Where is the sting in sorrow?—Gone. Oh, let us praise the Lord for his wonderful love!