p. 30 | CHEERFULNESS

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 15, 1859

CHEERFULNESS.

Cheerfulness is the sunshine of the soul, and the pleasing influence is not confined to self, but it diffuses happy light and genial warmth to the domestic and social circles. It is a true and inward joy, an agreeable and sober emotion, which, while it banishes melancholy, is readily distinguished from mirth, that oft, like lightning, breaks through the gloom, dazzles for a moment, when all becomes dark again. Merriment is transient and often spasmodic, but cheerfulness is a permanent and glowing serenity of the mind. The man who enjoys this happy disposition, is not only felicitous in his thoughts, but he controls his temper, and his impulses become amiable; while he feels a prevailing gratitude to the giver of all good, for the many blessings that have been vouchsafed to him. His family rejoice in the sunshine of his smile, and his friends unconsciously and irresistibly partake in his presence, of that galvanic but agreeable excitement, which with a mysterious mental sympathy, speeds like electricity from soul to soul, through groups and even

entire congregations of the human family.

Thus the cheerful man is a living fountain of good humor to those of his fellow-beings with whom he may come in contact. His imagination is clear, his judgment undisturbed by ungenerous, suspicious or bigoted prejudices. He looks at the world with a hopeful eye, sees chiefly the bright side of things, chases away the dismal visions and spectres that haunt the idler's fancy, labors with contentment, and enjoys the fruit of his toil with an exquisite relish. He gives not into the flying scandals of the hour that may involve his friends, and ridicules or lives down the calumnies that affect himself—thus disarming the point and edge of slanderous weapons, and rendering their venom innocuous.

Good-will is the general sentiment felt towards him—for he is affable and obliging, qualities that are naturally reciprocated by all with whom he converses—and whether in business or pleasure has a kindly effect upon the hearts of acquaintances, elicits a friendly friendship and a mutuality of amicable emotion. Indeed, cheerfulness may be regarded as a most manifest sign of wisdom. For as in our lives, so in our studies and thoughts, it is becoming and prudent to temper this faculty with gravity, in order that the mind may not be filled with mournful ideas and sad forebodings. This virtue which is so universally admired, infers an acquiescence in the decrees of Providence, and a desire to dispense, so far as in our power lies, additional happiness to all around, and a measurable contentment with our own condition of life. We are not only happy, if good-humored ourselves, but we are anxious that our friends should likewise partake of the serene pleasure that we experience. Proneness to melancholy is the sad condition of many men. They regard the present with dissatisfaction, and view the future—always an imaginary future—with alarm. They look forward to their coming destiny as replete with wo, and dwell upon pictures of improbable ruin conjured up by a morbidly creative fancy, with such terrible tenacity, that their minds are enveloped in gloom, and thus they first give way to a nervous despondency, then to blank despair, which not unfrequently conducts the unhappy victim to suicide. With such doleful persons, who are constantly supposing and building up in their fantastic brains, what they conceive to be insurmountable and inevitable obstacles, but which have no real existence, either present or prospective—the conversation of a cheerful companion dispenses the balm of an awakened felicity, and kindles the pure flame of hope; and then the heart of the hypochondriac becomes softened and brightened. He sees his condition and prospects in gayer and more vivid colors, and while he resolves to arouse his faculties from the depressive nightmare of sickly fancies, he soon finds that

“Hope, like the glimmering taper's light, Adorns and cheers the way, And still, as darker grows the night, Emits a brighter ray.”

How important, then, and how gratifying also, will ever be the endeavors of all who encourage a cheerfulness of disposition! It is a faculty that will banish from the soul all that secret heaviness and vain sorrow, which many men are liable to, who labor under no real affliction. It deprives the unavoidable evils and adversities of life of half their bitterness, and is a treasury even in hours of severe and multiplied trials, like Pandora's box, a casket full of ills, with hope at the bottom—and so are the ills counteracted. Cheerfulness promotes virtue, reproves vice, and improves temper. Properly appreciated, it will be recognized as a portion of the “Divinity that stirs within us.”—Phil. Inquirer.