The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1916-08-31
GOSPEL OF GOOD CHEER.
Communicate the Joy of Living to
Those Around You.

A preacher before delegates Of the
Presbyterian general assembly told
them that the world wants the Gospel
preached with a smile, not with a
long face, and as though there ran
in the veins of the speaker the red
blood of the Joy of living, to be COM
municated to the world in quicken
ing words.
A man told at a college dinner
and it made a hit with his class
mates-how in the mental doldrums
he was crossing the campus and one
of the "big" men of the undergradu-
ate world saluted him with a cheer
full Hello, Charley!" 1t was the
first time that the great one had call
ed his admiring satellite by the first
name, and "Charley" was warmed al
heart as though fire had suddenly
been kindled there. He felt it was
worth while to continue to sit in at
life's perplexing game.
Business has no room for sulks
and grouches. If you have private
grudge, take it outside and kick it
to pieces and btry the fragments far
down where there is no danger of
their resurrection. You may not be
a paid, professional funny man, but
you can smile. The world will well
come your amateur competition. Let
us have field day now and then to
bestow prizes for the running broad
grin or for lifting the gloom-but
we can leave out proficiency with the
hammer, for the people of the anvil
chorus have given us enough of that.
There is the hyena laugh, that be-
trays nothing but vacuity of mind;
and there is the silly flippancy that
turns serious things into giggles and
hysteria; and the Joy of living has
not much to do with that procedure.
The mere buffoon is going out of
fashion. Wit must have wisdom in
it, as a cartoon must contain the meat
of an epigram or trenchant edi-
torial. One issue of Punch has in
it the soul of a nation at war. The
world wants humor and humorists,
and it has learned to look for the
kernel of wheat beneath the chaff
which the wind driveth away. 1t is
coming more and more to turn a
deaf ear to the lugubrious profess
sors.
For the incarnate gloom in his
solemn black may have all the truth
on his side, but nobody wants to hear
him, because he regards himself as a
monumental austerity beyond ap-
proach. The man whe never can
laugh at himself, who is incensed
when a little gentle fun is poked at
him, is impossible in the usual fra
ternal contacts. Such one may be
uproariously amused when the joke
is on another and wax vastly indig-
nant when the tables are turned on
himself. He has taken himself so
seriously for so long time that he
believes himself sacrosanct. Let
prayer be offered for his redemption.
The world is very much obliged to
those who expostulate, admonish and
reprove. It cannot get along with
out apostles and evangelists and mis-
sionaries. 1t does not ask those who
hear too much of "the still, sad mu-
sic of humanity" to wear the cap and
bells. But it does crave-nay, de-
mand-on the part of those who
preach and teach a smiling attitude
of mind precedent to the smile that
appears on the visage. The stereo-
typed grin of the photographers VIC
tim when told to "look pleasant or
of the candidate for office when in
the hands of his friends, is not ade-
quate; the appearance of being in
love with life and glad of the chance
to serve ones fellows must first be
an inner reality; or the outward sem
blance will be the hollow mockery of
oy.-Philadelphia Ledger.