The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-10-19
THE DUTY OF BEING HAPPY
REV. DR. y. LEE MLTCHELL'S SER
 MON YESTERDAY MORNING.

Preached at Grand Avenue Congregational
 Church-ReaI Happiness and Unreal--A
 Striking Illustration-Reasons Why
 Men Should Praise God.
 At the Grand avenue Congregational church yesterday the pastor, Rev. Dr. ]. Lee Mitchell, preached an able and eloquent sermon on "The Sacred Duty ot Being Happy" pr. Mitchell spoke from the text, Psalm, evil, s: "Oh! that men would praise the Lord for his good- ness, and for his wonderful works tothe children of men," The discourse was, in full, as follows:
 'The sacred duty of being happy! My Christian friend, there is no duty I would more willingly perform if you would give me the means. I cannot produce bricks of happiness without some straw of good fortune. Just wait till get my house paid for, till my in- valid wife recovers till get away from that discouraging half-pay shop, till my children are grown, till I can get mon- ey enough together to marry, till Me- Kinley is elected, till the millennium comes, and I will be happy. But hap py with my present torments and dis appointments, my present anxieties and genuine reasons for dissatisfaction, I cannot be and ought not to be expect ed to be-
 Right there is precisely where the sacred duty comes in. To be happy when he is happy is no more credit to a man than to be good when he is asleep, and feel comfortable when he is drunk.
 Tt is waves of sensual excitement as animal as the comfort of a good din- ner or a Turkish bath that pass cur rent for happiness. Now the human heart ought to be capable of some thing different from what pig is ca pablo of when you scratch his back, and 1t is to that capacity that happi- ness pertains as a duty. It is that capacity that is reasonable and within the control of the will. It is to that capacity that the psalnnist appeals when he bursts out at all seasons and under all circumstances, Praise the Lord He would drive praise right through the tough scales of the souls discouraging environment as the pro- jectile of modern ironclad is driven through any armor that can be made.
 '"The clouds are masters of the moon, the moon never yet dispelled clouds, the moon never yet shone through clouds unless the clouds first chose to get out of the way, But the sun never yet wait ed for the clouds to get out of the way. He sends his hot glittering, unexhaust- ible shafts among them, dissolves them, drives them, disperses them before him. The moon is that sensual, senti- mental moody happiness which is de- pendent entirely on the circumstances of the day. The sun is that rational, wilful, victorious happiness which Is dependent on the the character of the soul
 ''The foundation of this happiness is supplied ready built to the world Any man that wants to build happiness finds the foundation already laid for him and all he has to do is the praise of God You might almost say that when those old Bible worthies got so down on their luck that they could not do anything else, they praised God. One feels fairly incensed at the Old Testament sometimes for it's persistent optimism Even Jeremiah can't ring us out some good round curses on his times and vail forth his dirges without interpolating verse and rolling out chapter every few minutes like the drum beat of angels. Blessed is the man that truseth in the Lord, for he shall be as tree planted by the wa ters. Fear thou not, oh my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed Oh Israel, for behold I will save thee from afar off and thy seed from the land of their captivity One expects praise in the New Testament which deals with a spiritual Kingdom, but in the Old Test ament, which deals with this life and . is forever seeking hope in this life the Old Testament might sing more of hu- manitys tunes of despair and hate, but it does not sing any of them except to point out their error and superimpose upon them songs of victory.
 They are not the praises of men who have only cause to praise God. They are the praises of men who, like our selves, knew the maddening sense of wrong and injustice, the passionate depths of regret which, while self-re- proachful, dare to chide heaven for poor guidance This David, whose prals have voiced the anthems of threa thousand years! Glorious his life seems from our standpoint but from his what had it not seen? Neglected and churlishly thrust aside as a boy-some men bear the sourness of such child hoods treatment all their ltevs; the romantically loved wife of his youth torn from him and given to another why men become outlaws, murderers and suicides under lighter blows. The embodiment of the matured friend ship of his manhood Prince Jonathan, the magnanimous slain miserably at the end of a needlessly lost battle. Had he not reflected on such scenes of so- cial turptitude as the murder of the no- ble Abner and the loyal Uriah? Had he not an old man been driven forth a fugitive from his home by the son he loved best of all? All praise has died pn millions of human lips under less stress of fortune, but though we have many penitential Psalm and some sad as funeral dirge, the fundament- al and final note is Hallaujah, God the Lord reigneth. On what 60 men