Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1907-11-07
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
DR.. CHARLES EDWARD LOCKE.
Subject: Crime of Unhappiness.

| Locke returned to his pulpit in the
| Hanson Place Methodist Episcopal
| Church Sunday. DR.. Locke's subject
was "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 fee away"
DR.. Locke said in the course of his
sermon:
It is our duty to be happy, 1t 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
a duty and right, but 1t is pos
sible possession; it 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, ana
sorrow and signing shall flee away"
and 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 abject, 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 crime against God and
| our fellows, as we'll as against our
| selves.
| There is an intricate and exquisite
| conspiracy in the universe to make
men h, ppy. There are carnivals Of
beau ty, panoramas of splendor, ora
torioJ of music, laughing waters,
dancing sunbeams, singing birds.
chanting seas, delicious fruits and
enchal )tiLg flowers. Nature is not
,ruel, health is contagious. there Is
.urvival of the flttest. "The cdm-
mon curse of things is in favor of
| happin )ss; 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 wise man, this must be his
own fault, for God made all men to
be happy" The very law of our
being is happiness.IsA crime is an
offence against the @Mws of God and
man; unhappiness is such an offence;
hence a crime.
Happiness may be discovered in
life's activities-in unremitttng 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-
tivity def1es infirmity, and octogena-
rians like John Wesley and John
Whittier, Gladstone and Pope Leo
XIII hold old age at bay while they
Naborate the closing achievements of
eventful careers. The benevolently
inclined young lady who cut off 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 it's promo
ton. If there are stunted growths
and undeveloped lives among the
youth Of these prosperous decades,
may it 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 conduces to true happiness.
What real 10y Is stored away in a
good book Study may be found an
unfailing source OF pleasure. The
culture Of the mind brings forth the
flower and the fragrance and the
fruitage of our intellectual natures.
Truth invigorates; it makes buoyant
and youthful. Truth is never old,
never discordant. Then. too, what
perennial fountains Of sparkling hap
piness are music and art and poetry.
And what shall be said about nature?
If 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. 1t Is
hard for naturalist to be an I'M
believer. Some great nature students
| have despised creeds, but 1t 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
If 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 GRAINED wall" has yet many beau
tiful lessons to the thoughtful WISH
tor. 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 sum-
mer scent Of rose, and be sure that
the window sill stands open and shall
never be shut again!"
Exquisite happiness is found In
life's true friendships. The widow
Of Schumann says that whenever she
was to 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 it 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 we'll 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
blesse Oblige," they simply accentu-
ated one of the finest principles of
the social organism, that rank or
privilege is obligation" Autocractes,
feudal systems, wars and all selfish
ambitions must gradually go down