The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1924-04-02
The Discovery
Of Happiness
Editorial in the Chicago Evening

= Is
Editorial in the Chicago Evening
Post.
The men who wrote the Declaration
of independence asserted The lnallen-
able right of human beings to pursue
happiness. Apparently they hesitated
to claim the right to possess it.
In the religion which Jesus taught,
the attainment and enjoyment of hap
piness are assured to it's followers
and not merely, as some have sup
posed, in remote tomorrow and a
distant heaven, but here and now.
The worlds desire is for happiness.
Z In all lands and in all ages men and
women have pursued it, and the trails
they have travelled are many and vari-
Gus and too often disappointing. 1t
invites and it eludes. The eager chase
leads hither and yon; the seeker fam
cies he is within single step of the
goal only to find that the Turing sprite
has vanished when the step is taken.
, He reaches his hand to grasp and his
fingers close on emptiness.
The right to pursue happiness is not
enough; the secret of its discovery
and possession is the need of human
hearts.
The world happiness itself is based
upon a misconception of It's nature.
The derivation is sufficiently obvious;
the first syllable indicates it. If we
were to accept the explanation of hap
:piness which the term implies we
would enlist ourselves among those
who pursue vainly, OF who find but
the fleeing CLEAN of a false light, a
hooking imitation of the lasting and
the true.
:. The happiness which Jesus promised
lis not the result Of chap; of chance,
of luck, or. circumstance.
s 1t is not dependent upon things or
conditions external to it's possessor,
and themselves subject to change, re-
sponsive to will or whim.
Jesus did not use a word equivalent
to our happiness in speaking of that
Estate of mind and heart which we Of
ten use it to describe. He spoke OF
r."joy" and rejoicing" of "blessed-
ness" or "blissfulness," terms which
carry the significance of state Or
iginating within the soul, rather than
! dependent upon conditions without it.
The man who has the secret which
He revealed can be happy in spite OF
circumstance.
1t is not a question Of good fortune
or evil fortune, of sunshine or storm,
but of a heart which has found its
goal in God, of eyes which have OPEN
ed to see the plan and the beauty and
the purpose of life, of a mind which
has discovered the high and abiding
values of the.spirit, whose enrichment
may be served by pain and loss as
surely-often more surely-than by
the "things," the externals, which we
commonly list as benefits.
Jesus taught that happiness or
s'blessedness" is open to the poor, the
meek and the hungry; that it may be
enjoyed by those who are. oppressed,
prosecuted, reviled, by. their fellows,
and this without changing Z the cir.
cu,nstances which men regard as chief
causes of unhappiness.
Not that he believed these circum-
stances desirable in themselves; on
the contrary the religion. He preach
ed, if everywhere practiced, would
wholly change them, would abolish
poverty and hunger and oppression.
But happiness need not await the
change. It may. be enjoyed in full
and Overlooking -measure while the
process of effecting the changes goes
on. ...oc..1 -;
He taught that the heart which is
merciful, which is clean, which seeks
the making of peace-and the word
means more than "peace," it means
harmony, welfare, completeness
happy heart.
He taught that eagerness for just
and right relations with ones fellows
brings a joy and blessedness which
chance cannot disturb
He found, indeed, that it's difficult