The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-23
SU N - HI Il n H;
VIEWED FROM A MORAL POINT.
A Lecture Delivered by the Rev. A. A.
WnIItts, DID,, at the First Baptist
Church, Camden, New Jer-
sey, Last Evening.

Rose. who said:-"Ladies and gentlemen, am
happy to introduce TO you one who, perhaps
is not stranger to many of you, having for
merly been the pastor of a church, for mum
ber of years. in Philadelphia, and, am happy
to say, is soon to be installed as pastor of the
West Arch Street Church, who will deliver a
lecture on Sunshine. p"
DIR. Willitts then came forward, and spoke
substantially as follows:-
Ladies and Gentlemen:--I am afraid that
my voice will present rather an unpleasant
contrast to the melodious strains to which we
have Just listened. find myself quite hoarse,
and almost out of voice this evening. There
is also very great danger also in announcing g
so dazzling subject as Sunshine" There
is very great danger in giving so brilliant a
title as that to discourse or lecture-dangerous,
unless the lecture at least should be per
lection of language, and not raise expectations
in the minds of the audience which the orator
may not be able to meet. Allow me, there
fore, my dear friends, at the very outstart, to
make a frank and sincere confession to you,
and put myself at once upon a fair under
standing with you as to what my purpose and
intention is tonight. 1 frankly confess to
you that do not propose to astonish you with
eloquence, nor overwhelm you with learning.
] have not come to you with my mental gun
charged with words of learning and words of
laundering sound, or to give you anything like
an elaborate or ambitious preparation.
purpose tonight to address you upon the topic
very intimately connected with your happi-
ness; and to bring my discourse home to your
business and to your labors, or, as Lord Bacon
has expressed it, 'to your daily lives;' and
purpose to address you in that simple Ian
guage of the heart which everybody can
readily understand. / am to speak to you, as
you have heard upon "Sunshine." Not
upon physical or natural sunshine although
that would be far from an unpleasant and un-
profitable theme. If | may Judge from the
specimen of the weather since / came to town
yesterday, there is nothing that would be more
welcome to you at this time than little sun
shine. Iuse the word Sunshine" because it is
pleasing word. use it tonight in its meta
phorical or fgurative sense; but to drop the
figure entirely, l mean simply to speak of
that serene, cheerful, contented, benefcent
disposition which makes its possessors not
only to find a tranquil happiness under all
the varied circumstances of this changing
life, but makes them to be in a most eminent
degree the dispensers of happiness to all who
come within the charmed circle of their bene-
fcent ministrations. There are some people
in the world whom you are always glad to see,
who never come in inopportunely; no matter
what time of day or what kind of a day,
whether it be washing-day or ironing day you
are always happy when they visit you.
Many people are outwardly pleasant, but
in their hearts they are not The dis
position to be happy is not only the
matchless adornment of its possessors, but it
is the well-spring of their happiness, and OF
their influence over the happiness of others.
Have you not often felt yourself, when bask-
ing in the rays of sunshine, blessed by the
ministrations of one of these souls like say
ing, "Well the world does not know who are
its greatest benefactors p For who are the
noisy men who have chiefly claimed its atten-
tiOn and challenged its admiration? what are
they, after all, to these gentle and genial
spirits who are placed in our midst as angelsl
These are the real benefactors of mankind,
and you cannot tell the precousness of
their influence. Nor, on the other
hand, can you, my friends, fully
esteem the malign influence of ,,o
peevish, despairing disposit'", disrosit;ons Vno
"' " 30. satisfied with anything, but
H0ntiBuRlly long for things possessed by
others Who can tell the mischief such
spirits do in the worldP The men who COM
NIT robbery and strike the assassin's blow
are OF this spirit. They are allowed TO run
at large although they are continually blight
ing the happiness of others. Speaking of hap
piness, didit ever occur to you now few people
in this world ever find happiness 1t cannot
be possible to attain perfect, unalloyed
felicity; but surely there is such thing as
tranquil happiness to be obtained upon this
planet. 1t would be derogatory to the char
acter of that God whose nature and whose
name is "love," to suppose that He had
planted desire of happiness in every human
heart and yet placed the means of its graft
5icatiOn entirely out of reach. Why do not
all find itl 1t is our purpose to answer
that question, as far as we may
be able, in the brief time allotted
TO this discourse tonight. At any rate
TO point out to you some of the reasons
why people fail to find happiness, and to givt
you conclusions to the point. One great ant
comprehensive reason why so many people
fail to find happiness is because they start ou
with this erroneous conception, they suppos
that happiness is thing dependent upon Ger
tain external circumstances, and until the.
can get these exactly adjusted Alright, the,
4hink it is impossible to find happiness. Thi
is great mistake 1t does not depend upo
external circumstances at all, but it is abso
lutely and entirely dependent upon interna
conditions and dispositions. The popula
understanding of the etymolOgy of tn
word "happiness" is that it is de
rived from ''hap," which indicates ''chance,
and that happiness comes to us by some rar
chap" Now, propose a new definition i
the practical lexicon of our lives. At an
rate, you and shall understand ''happinessi
70 be q word derived, indeed, from 'rhap.
which signifies chance, but also from "fnesse,
that signifies drawing good out of whateve