Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1903-09-12
HAPPINESS.
Not to Be Found by Those Who Seek
1t by Lowering of Moral
Standards.

If we judge men by their actions,
and the objects which they pursue,
their chief desire seems to be that
they may attain happiness. A man is
called blessed who can invent a new
joy, or show his fellow men the way
to further pleasures. The chief ques
ton asked, in change of position or
occupation, often is: Twill l like the
new place better than the old?"
Men will toll hard. early and late,
and do it willingly if you can only
show them recompense of happiness
at the end of it all.
But this world is after all sad
one. 1t is full of disappointment,
sick, sorrowing, bafied and defeated
men. The cynic is everywhere in ev-
idence. Bright hopes are blasted
Riches take unto themselves wings
and fly away Position, talent, and
hopeful worldly influence are no pro-
lection against the plague of black
care.
We have then, says the Chicago Ad-
vance, the anomaly Of man fitted for
happiness, and desiring it above
all things, yet having it flee from him.
Some philosophers have declared that
the whole world is an illusion. and
that there is no such thing as reality
1t is impossible, we are told, for
man to attain the things which he
desires and that it is useless for
him to fret himself about them. The
Greeks expressed this idea in the
fable of Tantalus in Tartarus He
was immersed in water up to his chin
and a tree loaded with luscious fruits
hung it's branches just over his head. He
was thirsty and hungry, but when he
attempted to drink, the water fled
from him, and when he tried to pick
the fruit, just above his head, it van
ished away.
But why should happiness flee from
man, when he so ardently desires it?
The trouble is that men for the most
part seek it through relaxation, and
the lowering of the standards. 1t is
the old history of Adam and Eve over
again. There was settling down of
moral integrity on their part for the
grasping Of what they considered a
greater happiness. Men ask to-day:
''Why should we obey this or that law
of God, man, or of our moral nature,
when it bars the way to our enjoy
ment?" This is part Of the revolt
against what men call "Puritanism."
The Chinaman smokes his opium pipe
regardless of the consequences. be-
~
him dreams of surprising bliss. Men
seem to care little for the conse
quences in their pleasures, and hence
come their wanderings in bleak will
dernesses.
Jesus Christ showed that if man
would be truly happy he must attain
to this happiness through a mastery
of the situation. There is no joy like
that of the victor. 1t is the man who
has gone down into the tumult and
uproar of life and fought and con-
quered in some good cause who tastes
of the nectar of supreme JOY. The
master words with Christ were:
Flight, watch and pray" here is the
entrance to the real Utopia for which
men seek. The man who has no mas
terry over his appetites, passions and
temper can never know what genuine
joy is.
The conditions of happiness which
produce no illusions and brighten
more and more unto perfect day are
not difficult to name. There must be
some supreme object of love and hope
upon which the heart is fixed. There
must he a harmony with the will OF
God. There must be endurance in the
cause Of Jesus Christ. There must be
an inner peace which no outer tu-
mutt can disturb.