The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1905-11-29
Where Shall We Find HappIness7

NfA~f~ otAAf W. ' AfAN f~Ff'ftT
Vanity Of vanities. all is vanity -Eeelesi-
Fear God and keep his commandments for
this Is the whole duty Of man.-Ecclesiastes'
xii, l3.
These are the opening and closing
words of one of the most remarkable
books of the Old Testament. The book
is not only melancholy, but also pessi-
mistic, written by the wealthiest, wis
est man Of ancient times. Without TAX
ing the time to review the history Of
King Solomon, the acknowledged au-
thor Of these words, we may say that
probably no man was ever more favor
ably circumstanced for testing the
power Of mere earthly things to confer
happiness on the soul.
He had great wealth, position, power,
learning, fame-all those things ordi-
narily regarded as essential to happi-
ness. And yet he describes himself as
the unhappiest of mortals The world
came to him with its best, and he
knew and appreciated, too, what was
best in that which he sought, and yet
he cried Vanity"
Nor are we to understand that the
things to which he gave himself with
such passionate devotion were all i'm
proper or useless. Some of them were
highly improper, but others, in their
own place, were of great Importance
and value. To be rich, to be learned,
to be powerful, were in themselves am
bitions not to be ignored. His quest
for happiness in itself was not to be
despised. His passion for pleasure was.
wholly legitimate, but the principle or
method Of its qualification was errone-
Gus; consequently he was doomed to
disappointment.
Solomon failed to realize that happi-
ness is a thing Of the soul and that the
soul is infinitely greater than any or
all Of the things of the world and car
Fies a potency of seemingly infinite do
velopment. Toward the end of his
checaered and embittered career he
realized his mistake and made the dis
covery that the spiritual transcends
the material that only as far as the
human soul seeks to live in the fear
which really means the favor-of God
and keeps His commandments can the
soul possess triumphant peace and
overfowing Joy.
The closing words of the foregoing
paragraph are among the tritest utter
ances of the modern preacher But
they need to be repeated over and over
again to the weary, disappointed, de-
jected multitudes Of pleasure seekers
OF our day. AS old Froissart said, we
take our pleasures too sadly, aye, too
ignorantly Not work, not religion, but
enjoyment is the business of the hour.
That much of it is frivolous and harm
full makes little difference; people will
be frivolous and perniciously happy
rather than not be happy at ALL If
happiness cannot be obtained in a
wholesome and helpful way it will be
sought in ways that injure and demor-
alize. And this passion for happiness
is a God created instinct. 1t exists just
as truly in the bosom of the ascetic as
in the bosom OF the so-called man
of pleasure.
BY the way in which happiness is
found-that is the question. The trou-
BILE with Solomon and all other men
who have sought happiness as he did
has been their failure to enter this
clearer, upper region, where all lower
pleasures are sublimated into holier,
diviner forms. Other men have been
stripped of every outer good, Of every
comfort Of the body and Of every en-
joyment Of the senses, but they have
entered into joys so sublime, so tran
scendent. that all other pleasures be-
came insignificant in comparison.-
Rev William c. Stinson, D. D.