The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1886-07-14
HOW TO ENJOY LIFE.


Appreciate the Blessings You Have.
Buoyant spirits and happy thoughts
are natural to the young, but youth
does not always last. In our early
years we must form those habits which
will enable us to enjoy to the full ex-
tent all the years that God gives us.
To that end let me give you few SIM
pie rules:
1. Always be full of some earnest
purpose. think even Sisyphus must
have been happier, pcrpetually rolling
the same stone up the same hill, than
he could have been age after age with
nothing to to do. ''Activity devoted
to useful ends' is good definition of
happiness. Babies and kittens are
happy without an aim in life, but theirs
is kind and degree of enjoyment
which can not possibly content strong
and growing minds.
2. fpossible, never be behind in your
work. Perhaps you have heard the old
story of the sick boy whose physician
declared that he had every symptom of
overwork. impossible, said the
mother. HE is required to do nothing
except to bring in one bucket of water
each day. "When does he bring
itp" said the doctor. 1--WE try"
was the answer. Ito have it
done in the morning, but he
puts it off; and, though often reminded
Of it, he generally neglects it until we
are obliged to call him up again after
he has gone to bed, that he may bring
it." "Ah." said the doctor, ''that ex-
plains it all. Make him bring it carly
in the morning, and he will get well. :"
And he did. The work which we neg
lect and carry on our consciences wears
us more than all that we do" Joseph
Cook once wrote in young girls al
bum: ''Duty done is the souls fire.
side"
8. Form the habit of being thankful
for your blessings. This is the key to
that wonderful gift, contentment.
There are many people dressed in silks
and sealskin, and shining with beauti-
full jewels, who are covered with morti-
fication because they are so lily clad,
and full of anger to think that better
whose scanty clothing is hardly decent
| or comfortable. have hearts full of
gratitude and joy. Besides, thankful
ness, which binds us to other loving
hearts, is the sweetest part of all the
good we can get from our possessions.
These three things will do much to
make our lives happy. Let me make
one other suggestion. Take care that
your amusements are really recrea-
ton. They must not be the business
of life. When amusement becomes our
chief pursuit, it soon pals on the taste.
And when the power of enjoyment is
lost in this way it is hard to recover.
The power of recreation, like that OF
digestion, once impaired, can only be
recovered with great difficulty and by
long abstinence.
| Neither should amusement be pas
sion with us. Play rests us. Passion
is like fire which burns that on which
it feeds, and ever calls for more. Be-
ware of the games whose interest is
stimulated by bets, or by those conven.
lent apologies for bets, prizes Be-
ware of the amusements which lead to
late hours and mornings heavy with
languor and depression. Some public
amusements can never be healthy, be-
cause their promoters are compelled
TO make them popular by ever-varying
methods of passionate excitement.
Work is the business of life. and play,
which diverts us from heavier cares
AMI helps us to fellowship with kin.
dred spirits, should not unfit us for it.
With all, do not forget the highest aim
for work, usefulness; and the best OF
all recreations, prayer.-Rev., J. M
Sturteuant, d. d., IN Congregationalist