Everybody loves the cheerful boy or girl, the cheerful man or woman; and
everybody ought to love such people. I wish all the boys and girls in
America would organize one grand SUNSHINE SOCIETY, whose chief object
should be the promotion of good feeling, good cheer, peace and happiness
among all the people everywhere. But, first, a boy or girl, man or
woman, must have sunshine in their own souls before they can communicate
sunshine to others. And, boys and girls, it would greatly assist us in
securing sunshine in our souls if we looked at our mercies with both
eyes, as I might say, and at our troubles and trials with only one eye.
What we enjoy in this world is always a good deal more than that which
we do not enjoy; but we do not magnify our blessings sufficiently. We do
not make as much of them as we ought. We do not rejoice because of them
as we ought. We ought to keep daily a record of God’s goodness and
kindness and patience and love. The Lord’s mercies are new every morning
and fresh every evening; but we do not realize that they are so, because
we do not stop to count them up; we do not think about them. If we
stopped to weigh the matter I think we should find more in our lives to
be happy about than to be sorry about. Our good fortunes always
outweigh our misfortunes; and we should find it so if we only acquired
the habit of remembering God’s goodness to us as well as the
disappointments and sorrows and afflictions which are for us all.
Then we should study contentment. We should study to be content. We must
cultivate the habit of being satisfied with what we have at present, and
we should not worry about those things which we do not possess. Worry
because of things they did not possess has made countless thousands
mourn. Let us enjoy what we have. Let us make the most of what we have.
And let us not worry about things which we do not possess. No matter how
miserable our own lot may be, there is always some one whose lot is more
miserable still. Worry kills more people than work. In fact worry unfits
a man for work. The man who has learned the philosophy of being content
in whatsoever state he is is the man who is and will be happy. One of
the things in this world that pays a hundred-fold is contentment, and
there is nothing that casts so much blight and mildew upon life’s
fairest flowers as discontent.
Again, it would help us to keep cheerful if we kept steadily engaged in
some work of usefulness. Let us go about doing good. Let us go about
seeking opportunities of doing good. Doing good makes the heart healthy,
and heart-health makes sunshine, happiness and good cheer.
A little thought will convince you, boys and girls, that your own
happiness in this world depends very largely on the way other people
bear themselves toward you. The looks and tones at your breakfast table,
the conduct of your playmates, the faithful or unreliable people that
you deal with, what people say to you on the street, the letters you
get, the friends or foes you meet--these things make up very much of the
pleasure or misery of your day. Turn the thought around, and remember
that just so much are you adding to the pleasure or misery of other
people’s days. And this is the half of the matter that you can control.
Whether any particular day shall bring to you more of happiness or of
suffering is largely beyond your power to determine. Whether each day of
your life shall give happiness or suffering to others rests with
yourself. And there is where the test of character comes. We must be
continually sacrificing our wills to the wills of others, bearing
without notice sights and sounds that annoy us, setting about this or
that task when we would rather be doing something else, persevering in
it often when we are very tired of it, keeping company for duty’s sake
when it would be a great joy to us to be by ourselves; and then there
are all the trifling and outward accidents of life, bodily pain and
weakness, it may be, long continued, losing what we value, missing what
we desire, deceit, ingratitude and treachery where we least expected
them; folly, rashness and willfulness in ourselves. All these little
worries which we meet each day may lie as stumbling blocks across our
way, or we may make of them, if we choose, stepping stones of grace.
I want all the little boys and girls who read this book to be
joy-makers, to be burden-bearers, to be among those who shall assist in
filling the whole world with good cheer. It is our duty to cheer and
comfort others; it is our duty to make the world not only better but
happier--happier because better--for our having lived in it. To all the
other beatitudes might well be added this one: Blessed are the cheerful
people, for they shall inherit the earth.