The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1909-04-26
ERMON BY
REVEREND
BROWN
THEME LAST EVENING 1.-THE LAW
OF HAPPINESS"
thine-The Law that Trans
cends All Others.

In the closing of the series OF SER
mons given in Ogden by Rev. William
Thurston Brown during the past eight
months. he spoke last evening from
the theme, THE Law or Happiness"
In part he said:
Here Is law of life which trans
cends every other Here Is the law
that determines everything-a law we
can no more repeal or escape than we
can repeal or escape the law OF grav-
itation. To know this law is to know
life. to be the master of life. Not TO
know this law is not to know life, Is
to be mere drift on the current OF
things Think how that law pene'
trates and shapes life regardless of our
will or wish. Think how the conven-
tions and ties and customs and laws
of human ignorance shrivel and fade
before the omnipotent might OF this
law of happiness. How 1t searches
and judges the subterfuge and sham
of things.
Docs your whole nature crave some
gracious friendship, some beautiful,
satisfying Affection The whole thing
lies in you Do you think any other
human being can be your friend by
giving you his promise to be so? DO
you imagine any divine fulfillment OF
life. any of the things for which the
awakened soul hungers, can be pur-
chased by any thing you can get or
give? Can be had for the asking?
Can come at the beck of desire? Can
be yours II you wish hard enough
Do you think the saying OF any words
or the celebration of any rite or tho
signing of an contract or the expert
ence of any sort of external union
puts you or any one In possession
of the love of man or woman? The
most casual thought Of this ceaseless
tragedy of our courts ought to con-
vince the most stupid that 1T does
not lie In human laws or contracts or
promises to make man and woman
husband and wife Nothing which
has any value as friendship can be
called forth from another except by
| something noble, lovable, eternal. in
you. Nothing which can endure as
| love can be the product of anything
| less than moral character, greatness
| of soul, splendor of spiritual vision
| and symmetry and robustness OF spir'
| itual stature. You cannot buy the re;
ally great things, the things Whlch
| above all others every soul Graves.
| You can shrink and shrivel into some
| thing less than A man or woman by
accepting a poor, seamy, shoddy SUBJ
| stitute In place Of the real thing.
| But you can have the things which
| alone make life worth while only by
being the thing which inevitably
makes those treasures yours. The
| greatest things In all the world are
never gained by seeking-they ineV-
| itably come to those to whom they
| belong John Burroughs has most
beautifully expressed this supreme AK
| ION Of the spiritual world In that lit
| tie poem whose refrain Is my own
| shall come to me"
! No man need worry lest he may
not get what belongs to him-I mean
in the things that really count. He
| cannot escape what belongs to him.
He cannot get anything else-not on
| the plane where life is lived. BY
what he is, and not otherwise, he COM
pels them to him. And nothing that
one gets in this llfe-nothing that
comes to a man or woman can be so
! divinely good. so sacredly precious,
as that friendship or affection which
| is the answer Of character to charac'
ter, of nobleness to nobleneSs. of de.
votion and eenuineness to devotion
and genuineness-"de calling unto
deep" When that experience comes
to one. 1t is theophany-it brings
to life the sense of immortal worth.
| After that. death ceases to have any
meaning.
The saddest tragedy OF our world
as we shall sometime knowles In
| the fact that millions on millions OF
young men and young women are be-
ing taught by all they see and hear
| that happiness does lie somehow in
ACQUISITION. that getting things; wealth,
power, culture, prestige, fame-ls the
secret Of happiness, Of joy, and other
millions by the very misery OF their
inevitable lot, menaced by poverty
want, starvation, charity, have no al
| tentative but the utterly false and soul
destroying belief that mere possession
of things means happiness-in both
cases inoculating the masses OF men
and women with the virus OF soul-de-
stroying materialism. And as re-
suit. you have before you today In
human society the almost universal
substitution OF pleasure in the place
Of happiness as the fulfillment OF life
A sadder tragedy could not be. Pleas
ure hasn't one note or chord OF NOR
/! ality or spirituality in 1t. 1t doesn't
belong in the same world as happi-
| ness Pleasure Is an attribute OF the
mere creature; happiness is the con-
sciousness Of creator. Pleasure is
the mere foam that files from the
| crests OF the waves when the sur
| face of the sea is fretted by the wind.
| Happiness is the neyerceasing tide
which neither storm nor calm can
create OF destroy. Pleasure is a mere
phantom, happiness Is a divine real
ity.
| This secret of being something
worthy Of love, worthy Of friendship
this moral magnetism-this mastery
of the things which make for joy
Is no accident Of genius, on mere in
heritance. 1t Is supremely the gift
of genuine religion. In no atmoS-
phere that men and women can know
can they find the things which endure,
the things that enrich life. as in the
atmosphere of great service, great
vision. great and ennobling task.
| The friendship and affections which
root and bloom and blossom In thar
atmosphere are glimpses OF God and
intimations such as are experienced
aowhere else.