Part 6 (1/2)
The poor man I have told you about was the man who washed the club man's auto.
The strenuous pleasure seeker fails to get happiness; that is an inexorable law. He develops into a pessimist with an acrid, satirical disgust at all the simple, worth-while, real things in life.
This is not a new discovery of mine; it's an old truth. Read Ecclesiastes, the pessimistic chronicle of the Bible, and you'll find what comes to the pleasure-chaser, and you will know about ”vanity and vexation of spirit.”
Do something for somebody. Engage in moves and enterprises that will be a service to the community and help the uplift of mankind. This making others happy is a positive insurance and guarantee of your own happiness.
You must keep a stiff upper lip, a stiff backbone; you must forget the wishbone and the envious heart.
Paul had trials, setbacks, hards.h.i.+ps and hard labors; he had defeats and discouragements and still the record shows he was ”always rejoicing.”
Paul was a man of Pep. In the dungeon with his feet in stocks he sang songs and rejoiced. Paul was happy, ever and always, not because he strove to get happiness, but because he had dedicated his life to a service to mankind.
The real hero, the real man of fame, the real man of popularity, doesn't arrive through direct quest, for any of these things; the result is incidental.
The real hero forgets self first of all; that is the essential step to greatness.
Was.h.i.+ngton at Valley Forge had no thought that his acts there would furnish inspiration for a picture that would endure for generations.
Lincoln, the care-worn, tired n.o.ble man, in his speech at Gettysburg, never dreamed that speech would stamp him as a master of words and thought, in the hearts of his countrymen. He thought not of self. He was trying to soothe wounds, cheer troubled spirits, and give courage to those who had been so long in shadowland.
Ever has it been that fame, glory, happiness are rewards, given not to those who strive to capture, but to those who strive to free others from their troubles, burdens and problems.
THOUGHT CONTROL
”As a Man Thinketh in His Heart so is He”
A little child is crying over a real or fancied injury to her body or to her pride.
So long as she keeps her mind on the subject she is miserable.
Distract her attention, get her mind on another subject, and her tears stop and smiles replace frowns.
This shows how we are creatures of our thoughts. ”As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” is a truth that has endured through the centuries.
We are children in so far as we cry and suffer when we think of our ills or hurts or wrongs or bad luck.
We can smile and have peace, poise and strength if we change our thoughts to faith, courage and confidence.
Our condition is what we make it. If we think fear, worry and misery, we will suffer. If we think faith, peace and happiness, we will enjoy life.
Every thought that comes out of our brain had to go in first.
If we feed our brain storehouse with trash and fear, and nonsense, we have a poor material to draw from.
The last thought we put in the brain before going to sleep is most likely to last longest. So it is our duty to quietly relax, to slow down--to eliminate fear-thought, self-accusation, and to subst.i.tute some good helpful thought in closing the mental book of each day.