Even the simplest of them--to do good to other people--is an instant
and infallible specific. There is no mystery about Happiness whatever.
Put in the right ingredients and it must come out. He that abideth in
Him will bring forth much fruit; and bringing forth much fruit is
Happiness. The infallible receipt for Happiness, then, is to do good;
and the infallible receipt for doing good is to abide in Christ. The
surest proof that all this is a plain matter of Cause and Effect is
that men may try every other conceivable way of finding happiness, and
they will fail. Only the right cause in each case can produce the
right effect.
Then the Christian experiences are our own making? In the same sense
in which grapes are our own making and no more. All fruits
_grow_--whether they grow in the soil or in the soul; whether they are
the fruits of the wild grape or of the True Vine. No man can _make_
things grow. He can _get them to grow_ by arranging all the
circumstances and fulfilling all the conditions. But the growing is
done by God. Causes and effects are eternal arrangements, set in the
constitution of the world; fixed beyond man's ordering. What man can
do is to place himself in the midst of a chain of sequences. Thus he
can get things to grow: thus he himself can grow. But the power is the
Spirit of God.
What more need I add but this--test the method by experiment. Do not
imagine that you have got these things because you know how to get
them. As well try to feed upon a cookery book. But I think I can
promise that if you try in this simple and natural way, you will not
fail. Spend the time you have spent in sighing for fruits in
fulfilling the conditions of their growth. The fruits will come, must
come. We have hitherto paid immense attention to _effects_, to the
mere experiences themselves; we have described them, extolled them,
advised them, prayed for them--done everything but find out what
_caused_ them. Henceforth