Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1903-10-03
HAPPINESS.
Eot to BE Found by Those Who Seek
- 1t by Lowering of Moral
D. Standards.

II we judge men by their actions,
and the objects which they pursue,
their chief desire seems to be that
hey may attain happiness. A man is
sailed blessed who can invent a new
Joy, or show his fellow men the way
10 further pleasures. The chief ques-
ton asked, in a change of position or
occupation. often is: "Will | 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
ut the end of it all.
But this world is after all a sad
sne 1t is full of disappointment,
sick, sorrowing. baffled and defeated
men. The cynic is everywhere in ev-
ldence. Bright hopes are blasted.
Riches take unto themselves wings
and fly away. Position, talent, and
hopeful worldly influence are no pro-
tection against the plague Of black
sare.
= We have then, says the Chicago Ad-
vance, the anomaly of man fitted for
happiness, and desiring it above
all things. yet having il fee from him.
Some philosophers have declared that
the whole world is an illusion, and
that there is no such thing as reality.
&c is impossible, we are told, for a
man to attain the things which he
desires and that il is useless for
him TO fret himself about them. The
Greeks expressed this idea in the
liable of Tantalus In Tartarus He
was immersed in water up to his chin
and tree loaded with luscious fruits
hung it's branches Just over his head. He
was thirsty and hungry, but when he
attempted 10 drink. the water fed
srom him, and when he tried to pick
The fruit, just above his head, it van.
,lshed away.
but why seould happiness fee 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 q settling down o.
moral integrity on their part for the
Erasping of what they considered ;
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 revol
against what men call "Puritanism,
The Chinaman smokes his opium pip
regardless of the consequences. be
cause it, for the time being, brings t
him dreams of surprising bliss. Me
seem to care little for the const
auences in their pleasures, and henc
some their wanderings in bleak wi
ternesses.
Jesus Christ showed that if a ma
would be truly happy he must attai
10 this happiness through a master
Of the situation. There is no joy lib
that of the victor. 1t is the man VIII
has gone down into the tumult an
uproar of .,fe and fought and col
Huered in some good cause who taste
Of the nectar of supreme joy. tt
master words with Christ were
Flight, watch and pray" here is Il
entrance to the real Utopia for whiC
men seek The man who has no ma
terry over his appetites. passions al
temper can never know what genuil
Soy Is.
The conditions of happiness whit
produce no illusions and brightt
more and more unto a perfect day a
not difficult to name. There must
some supreme object of love and no
upon which the heart Is fixed. The
must be a harmony with the will
God. There must be endurance in t
sause OF Jesus Christ. There must
an inner peace which no outer
multi can disturb.