Part 12 (1/2)

Life is a great struggle against gloom, and we could fight it better if we always remembered that happiness is a condition of heart and is not dependent on outward conditions. The kingdom of heaven is within you.

Everything depends on the point of view.

Two prisoners looked out once through the bars, One saw the mud, the other saw the stars.

Looking into the sky one sees the dark clouds and foretells rain, and the picnic spoiled; another sees the rift of blue and foretells fine weather. Looking out on life, one sees only its sad grayness; another sees the thread of gold, ”which sometimes in the patterns shows most sweet where there are somber colors”! Happiness is a condition, and if you are not happy now, you had better be alarmed about yourself, for you may never be.

There was a woman who came with her family to the prairie country thirty-five years ago. They built a house, which in those days of sod roofs and Red-River frames seemed quite palatial, for had it not a ”parlor” and a pantry and three bedrooms? The lady grieved and mourned incessantly because it had no back-stairs. In ten years they built another house, and it had everything, back-stairs, dumb-waiter, and laundry shoot, and all the neighbors wondered if the lady would be happy then. She wasn't. She wanted to live in the city. She had the good house now and that part of her discontent was closed down, so it broke out in another place. She hated the country. By diligently keeping at it, she induced her husband to go to the city where the poor man was about as much at home as a sailor at a dry-farming congress.

He made no complaint, however. The complaint department was always busy! She suddenly discovered that a Western city was not what she wanted. It was ”down East.” So they went. They bought a beautiful home in the orchard country in Ontario, and her old neighbors watched development. Surely she had found peace at last--but she hadn't. She did not like the people--she missed the friendliness of the new country; also she objected to the winters, and her dining-room was dark, and the linen closet was small. Soon after moving to Ontario she died, and we presume went to heaven. It does not matter where she went--she won't like it, anyway. She had the habit of discontent.

There's no use looking ahead for happiness--look around! If it is anywhere, it is here.

”I am going out to bring in some apples to eat,” said a farmer to his wife.

”Mind you bring in the spotted ones,” said she who had a frugal mind.

”What'll I do if there are no spotted ones?” he asked.

”Don't bring any--just wait until they do spot!”

Too many people do not eat their apples until they are spotted.

But we know that life has its tragedies, its heartaches, its gloom, in spite of all our philosophy. We may as well admit it. We have no reason to believe that we shall escape, but we have reason to hope that when these things come to us we will be able to bear them.

”Thou shalt not be _afraid_ of the terror by day, nor of the arrow that flieth by night, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.”

You will notice here that the promise is that you will not be afraid of these things. They may come to you, but they will not overpower you, or destroy you utterly, for you will not be afraid of them. It is fear that kills. It is better to have misfortunes come, and be brave to meet them, than to be afraid of them all your life, even if they never come.

Gloom and doubt and fear paralyze the soul and sow it thick with the seeds of defeat. No man is a failure until he admits it himself.

Tramps have a way of marking gateposts so that their companions who may come along afterwards may know exactly what sort of people live inside, and whether it is worth while to ask them for a meal. A certain sign means ”Easy people--no questions”; another sign means ”Nothing stirring--don't go in”; another means ”Beat it or they'll give you a job with lots of advice!” and still another means ”Dog.” Every doubt and fear that enters your heart, or tries to enter, leaves its mark upon the gatepost of your soul, and it serves as a guide for every other doubt and fear which may come along, and if they once mark you ”Easy,” that signal will act as an invitation for their twin brother ”Defeat,” who will, without warning, slip into your heart and make himself at home.