Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1917-02-21

4 But whichever 1t IS, tue klngOOm ii
within YOU" and you are it's creator.
Within that kingdom you, as a spirit
are secure from everything but your
self. There you dwell as within an
| impregnable citadel. The men and
women around YOU. the forces Of nat
ure, the temptations and sorrows Of
| life, have no more power to injure you
than you have to pull the moon out Of
it, path. II you suffer harm, that
harm IL done to yourself BY yourself.
Therefore the caution Of this evening:
do myself no harm!"
: Now We come to the second point
in the sermon:
3. In what way can you inture
yourself!
You can injure yourself in only one
Nay, That il, the harm which you can
can do yourself consists in only one
thing.
l said that you BY the power OF
your own thought create this inner
kingdom in which you dwell. and that
you can make 1t either q happy or .
miserable one in which to live. Now
the only harm you can do to yourself
consists in making yourself miserable.
BY making yourself miserable. you
not only deprive yourself Of all pres
ent enjoyment, but, what is Infinitely
worse, you undermine, you diminish,
you shrivel, your capacity for beirg
happy. Your capacity for happiness
| is the one great asset Of your being.
When that is lost, all is lost. You
may continpe to exist; but mere exist
ence = 1s,t blessing. Existence
without capacity for happiness is a
burden to you and a nuisance and a
curse to others. And this very ca
pacity for happiness is the thing that
you are continually whiting away
and wearing out by making yourself
miserable. That Is the harm you are
doing to yourself, and 1t Is the great
est possible harm that human being,
can suffer.
Why do you make yourself nniser-
able? Oh, fol, an uncountable number
Of reasons. Perhaps I can group the
principal ones among them under
f1rea or fn,ir heads
l. You make yourself miserable by
attributing your happiness to sources
outside Of yourself.
Perhaps you seek your happiness in
things, houses, lands, money, things
that you possess or would like to pos
sess. So long as they are coming your
way you feel pretty good; the moment
you are deprived of them, you are in
the depths Of misery. Or you seek
your happiness in your reputation. in
what others think of you. AS long as
they smile, and pat you on the back,
and say nice things about you. you
are blithe and gay; the moment they
criticise and find fault, your happiness
looks like corn stalk after frost in
August cooked, blistered. shrivelled
up. Jesus said: Woe unto you when
all men speak we'll of you" If your
happiness depends upon that, 1t is IL
able to topple OF its pedestal any
moment.
There is one Of the greatest errors
to which we are liable, to think that
our happiness depends upon sources
outside Of ourselves. Jesus pointed
out this error when he said that "a
mans life consistent not in the abund-
ance Of the things which he possess
eth" But we persist in thinking that
It does. OF course, as long as we think
that we must have things" to make
US happy, we cannot be happy WITH
out them; but 1t is our own thought
that makes it so.
Why are you happy when you get
the money you want? Because yLu
think you are happy with the money.
II you could learn to think yourself
happy without money. you would be
just as happy without it. In either
case 1t is your thought that creates
your happiness. The trouble with
most of us is that our thought is too
weak to create an inner atmosphere
of happiness unless 1t is pro2ped up |
BY something from the outside. But
even With the prop, be It money, or
reputation, or what not, It is not the
prop that makes us happy; it is our
thought, supported BY the prop. II our
thought we're strong enough to st. nd /
without the prop. the result would be
Just the same. Your happiness /, not
derived from outside sources; 1t is
created from within, fby your own
thought your own mental attitude.
This is what the Bible is constantly
trying to tell us by pointing out that
the world" and "'the things Of the
world" cannot satisfy the soul
Some of you may take exception to
my saying that the sources Of happi-
ness are all within ourselves. You
may say, rs not God the great source
of our happiness. and is He not out
side of ourselves?" No. So long as God I
Is outside of ourselves, He is no source
Of happiness to us. II anything, He