Bisbee daily review., 1919-11-23
A JOYFUL RELIGION


 Apparently a majority of young people think not
 Take such a Bible word as this saying Jesus, These things have said unto you that your joy may be full" and likelier than not the young friends of your nearest acquaintance will confess, if you ask them, that the word joy" in that connection sounds bloodlessly unreal. Jesus used it, they suppose, in some ghostly sense Of his own be- cause he lived a life so different from that of ordinary folks; so he must have had a different kind of joy.
 Such young folks are often mem bers of the church and honestly try ing to be Christians. But not with expectation of finding happiness thereby; it is only because they think they ought.
 They want to be happy of course; all young folks do. But they expect to have to manage it as best they can in spite of religion.
 Their real difficulty lies, however, in two misjudgments. First,
 The average young person does not know what joy is. W
 This statement one can expect to be received only incredulously. It seems the most absurd thing one might say to fun-loving boy or girl to allege that happiness is any mys- tery. Doesn't young life take to joy by instinct? And doesn't the in stinct yield delight just as naturally as flowers bloom?
 One might say so on first thought but not on second. For the sec ond thought reminds one of second effects-not merely the flush of ex- cited pleasure in the moment of qualification but the recoil of spirits after the pleasure is over and past. For it is not the drunkard who knows what morning after" means. In milder ways, yet by reactions just as certain, young folks who
 
 and late hours and the abandon of hiliarity find the ebb of the tide leaving them stupid.
 Their only escape is to plunge off again after more excitement.
 And so it comes clear that ex. citement is their definition of enjoy ment. They know of nothing that they call happiness which does not stretch their nerves to a brittle ten sion.
 They are not happy (according to their own estimation) if there is not bubbling inside them a caldron of exhilaratey gayety.
 When life is simply calm and pleasant, when days pass by smooth ly in a routine of simple comfort and accustomed affections, it is rare for the young to recognize that just that and nothing more is worthy the name of joy.
 Perhaps nothing but the experience of years brings anybody to a per sonal realization of the joy that runs with the unexcited current of ordinary living when love, faith and good cheer go with it.
 But young people ought to heed the counsel of their elders which tells them this, especially when they know that these fathers and mothers and uncles and aunts started out with the same nation of joy in nothing but bubblng fun-and after ward fel. their mistake.
 While therefore times of merri- ment and jolly release from the or dinary requirements of duty are not to be despised by older or younger, yet for it's staple of pleasure youth should early besln to practice the simple and sure enjoyments-which do not react unpleasantly afterward
 The boy or girl who before the twenties are reached has not learned to get joy out of reading and talk with the family at home, out of music that sings in the memory, out of thoughtful walks through summer woodlands or winter fields, out of a glowing sunset and crystal morn ing, out of a reflective hour with ones thoughts. has not won posses sion of the richest treasuries of hap Piness.
 A man insistent on accommodating wealth in copper pennies and refus- ing to have anything to do with gold, is a fair parallel for youth counting on transient hours of frolic for happiness and neglecting the steadfast sunshine that Eliminates a cheerful heart.
 The second difficulty is this:
 The majority of young folks do not realize what religion is.