Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1871-08-16
CheeTfulneSS.
ny REV. LrSIIE WEAVER.

\ cheerful face Is a mirror whose polish
eI outlines reflect happiness and sunshine,
upon every thing about IT, \ gloomy,
morosc. churlish nature Is always repulsive,
Tut a cheerful nature Is inviting, and its
companionship always agreeable. \ smil-
ing countenance Is the index ola eongenial
sympathetic soul within. An unrutfied
temper makes its possessor as quiet as a
summer lake unswept by q breeze. 4
merry tongue has magnetic power which
can beguile many q lonely hour, Tighten
many Of the burthens of life, and transmute
labor into pastime and recreation. 1t Is
often thought that circumstances render
men cheerful or sad blithe OF sedate, ac-
cording TO the prospects before them. It
they are promising, they are cheerful if
foreboding, they are detected ans sorrow
tul. This need not be true
Bunyan was happy in prison. Ignatius,
Bishop OF Antioch. who suffered martyr
dom by being thrown to wild beasts. \. d.
ll6, was happy at the prospect OF death.
Polycarp, who was martyred under An
tonius. A. d. I66. though 96 years of age.
marched with a firm step and cheerful
countenance, while approaching the stake,
and shouted while the flames waited his
spirit upward, wheeling toward the throne.
Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, died \. ID.
43O lie was joyous in the midst Of the
most intense pam, and longed for the pegs
which supported his tabernacle Of flesh to
be drawn. that his body might fall.
have seen persons born in atiiuence, sur
rounded with all the circumstances which
could Danish sighing rs an exotic from the
soul, whose lives were a prodigy, and who
were always deploring their existence, be-
cause some rccondite sorrow or claadestine
pain was working with corrosive power
upon their hearts. Many kings have ruled
upon a regal throne Of imperial dignity
with scepter and baton. before whom the
people Frustrated themselves in token Of
homage, who were gloomy, melancholy, and
depressed. Many persons born in poverty,
without one cheering circumstance con-
nected with their history, are always happy,
buoyapt aud tranquil. | have seen or
phans smile when it would seem they must
despair. There is some hidden secret TO
all the miseries OF life.
The philosophy of being happy is not
studieusiy inquired into, and many per-
sons are sad and know not why they are
so. The caves and nooks of earth are fill
ed with persons who have rstreated there.
folded their arms, and are expecting that
happiness will come to them, bid them dry
their tears and be cheerful and gladsome
But happiness will never come to them
there. 1t is commodity which cannot
be bought and sold, and which every man
must manufacture for himself. Every man
must make sunshine In his own heart, if he
would scatter the clouds OF darkness, and
bespangle his sky with crescent-crowned
star-sets of beauty and JOY. Too many
persons live in an ideal world, instead ofl
the real world upon which they walk.
Their bodies are here, but their minds are
in the future, foreboding about the storm
scuds which lower over their pathway.
Hence they are harrassed with timorous
apprehensions, with horrible fancies, with |
calamities and a moody dispo- |
sition. Some are amazed that they do not
enjoy wealth which they have never earn
ed; some, that they are not rewarded |
when they have never merited it; some, |
that they are not learned, when they have |
never applied themselves to study and |
mental discipline; and some, that they
were not born heirs to a throne, with a |
slave for mother. Most of them might
be happy, if they would apply themselves
and the means to secure the end which |
they desire. Many are sad because they |
will not enjoy present good, but spurn it
by prelibating something grander. We
be cheerful unless we enjoy present
blessings. Many cast the diamonds which
they now possess in the fire, and long for
more valuable ones; they trample the
flowers which spring by their pathway,
under their feet, and long for others of
more delicate tint, and richer hue; they
are constantly expecting something which
they can never realize, and hence are al
ways unhappy. A sure receipt for sadness
is to be reaching after some phantom which
is always ahead.
1t is the imperative duty of every man
TO enjoy all the good which God grants
1im. He may engage in any pleasure
which is cODSOnant with the will Of God or |