The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-11-07
THE PJLPlI.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON eY,
Or. CHARLES EDWARD LOCKE
Subject Crime of unhappiness.

'urch Sunday. DR.. Locke's subject
- The Crime of Unhappiness: or.
Where Happiness MAY be Found"
His text was Isaiah 35:10: "They
shall obtain Joy and gladness, and
sorrow and signing shall flee away"
DR.. Locke said in the course OF his
sermon:
II is our duty to be happy, it is our
right TO be happy. The philosophers
stone, which can transform all the
dross of life into purest joys, is hope.
The tabled fountain which will in
sure eternal youth and beauty is con-
tentment. True happiness is not only
duty and right, but it is a pos
sible possession; IL is the sure prize
OF those who seek Alright
The rapt prophet Isaiah boldly
foretells the time when the people
shall obtain Joy and gladness, and
sorrow ard signing shall flee away"
aud everlasting JOY shall be upon
their heads" The radiant promises
OF the Word of God are not to torture
and to tantalize mankind into woes
and slaveries more abiect. but are
intended to awaken our lethargic
natures and somnolent consciences
that we may be aroused to claim our
high and holy and happy estate. I'm
happiness is a crime against God and
our fellows, as well as against our
selves.
There IS an intricate and exquisite
conspiracy in the universe to make
men happy. There are carnivals OF
beauty, panoramas of splendor. ora
torios of music, laughing waters.
dancing sunbeams, singing birds.
chanting seas, delicious fruits and
enchanting flowers. Nature is not
cruel, health IS contagious, there is a
survival of the fittest "The ccm-
mon course Of things is in favor Of
happiness; happiness is the rule, mis-
cry the exception
As God made the sun to shine and
the flowers to bloom and the seas
to ebb and flow. so He made man to
be happy. "If any man is unhappy"
said a wise man, this must be hts
own fault for God made all men to
be happy" The very law of our
Leing is happiness. A crime is an
offence against the laws OF God and
man; unhappiness is such an offence:
hence crime.
Happiness may be discovered in
life's activities-in unremitting en-
deavor, not in the bluster and haste
which enervate and defeat, but in the
constant use of our capacities. I'm
rest and atrophy occur when ener-
gies are allowed to become stagnant.
An aimless life Is always an unhappy
life. Leisure and rest have exquisite
flavor where they are the punctuation
points of duties faithfully DISCHARGED
and ambitions steadily realized. Ac-
tfvity defies infirmity, and octogena-
rians like John Wesley and John
Whittier, Gladstone and Pope Leo
XIII hold old age at bay while they
elaborate the closing achievements OF
eyentful careers. The benevolently
inclined young lady who cut of the
tail OF the pollywog to hasten the
stages OF its evolution wept in dis
may when she found she had ended
the life of the little dismembered
creature. 1t needed the labor of get
ting rid of its tail to develop strength
for the responsibilities OF its promo
tion. II there are stunted growths
and undeveloped lives among the
youth of these prosperous decades.
may 1t not be that our educational
and domestic methods are affording
too much assistance, or ease, or lux
ury to these little human pollywogs?
Every faculty of our being IS made
more robust by constant and sensible
activity. To be able to bring things
TO pass conducas to true happiness.
What real Joy is stored away in o
good book! Study NAV be found an
unfailing source of pleasure The
culture Of the mind brings forth the
Hover and the fragrance and the
fruitage of our intellectual natures.
Truth invlgorates; It makes buoyant
nd fts1 a, -
never discordant. Then. too, what
perennial fountains of sparkling hap
piness are music and art and poetry.
And what shall be said about nature?
II people would be happy, they must
get out of doors. God made the
heavens, but man made the houses.
Many houses are devices OF Satan to
shut man away from his God. All
nature is redolent of divinity. II is
hard for naturalist to be an un-
believer. Some great nature students
have despised creeds. but it was be-
cause their great God was too mighty
to be bounded and measured by mans
dialectical tape line or foot rule Let
us get out of doors. God, music.
might and men are out of doors. and
II we would be happy we must asso-
ciate much with the world outside,
for we have a divine commission to
subdue the earth. The flower in
the oranied wall" has yet many beau
tiful lessons TO the thoughtful visi-
nor. Like the story of Edward Row
land Sill, let us fling open the win
dows Of our grim towns and let in
the gust Of sunshine and the sam
mer scent Of rose, and be sure that
the window sill stands open and shall
never be shut again!'
Exquisite happiness is found I'm
life's true friendships The widow
of Sehumann says that whenever she
was 70 play in public any of her hus-
bands music, she would read over
and over again the dear love letters
he had written her during his life.
All true love is divine, and what we
call human love is really divine love,
and is one OF our earthly faculties
which is the sure prophecy OF the
estate of infinity to which we are
going, as 1t is the token Of the in
finite heart from which we have
sprung. No man can be truly happy
who does not love or is not truly
loved. The greatest OF these Is love!
Happiness Is always found in SER
vice. He who would be "happy"
among you, as well as "he who would
be chief among you, must be the SER
want Of ALL" When the old French
nobility chose as their motto, mo
lfesse Oblige," they simply accentu-
ated one OF the finest principles OF
the social organism, that rank or
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