Through me the way among the people lost.
All hope abandon, ye who enter in!”[6]
I go on to say, however, that formal proof of this moral order of the world is impossible. The ancient Hebrews believed that one could not look upon the face of God and live, and Christianity, in its turn, offers us no formal proof of the character of God. The only path that leads to the proof of God is that which is followed in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Here is a proof which any one may test whose heart is pure; while from those who merely reason about God’s order of the world He hides Himself, and no man may rend by force the veil that covers Him.
If, then, one begins simply to live as in a moral world, his path to happiness lies plainly before him. The door is open and no man can shut it. Within his heart there is a certain stability, rest, and assurance, which endure and even gather strength amid all outward storms. His heart becomes, as the Psalmist says, not froward or fearful, but “fixed.” The only peril from which he now has to guard himself is the peril of regarding too seriously the changeful impressions and events of each day. His desire must be to live resolutely in one even mood, and to look for his daily share of conscious happiness not in his emotions, but in his activity. Then for the first time he learns what work really is. It is no more to him a fetish, to be served with anxious fear; it is no longer an idol through which he worships himself; it is simply the natural and healthy way of life, which frees him not only from the many spiritual evils which are produced by idleness, but also from numberless physical evils which have the same source. Happy work is the healthiest of human conditions. Honest sweat on the brow is the source of permanent and self-renewing power and of light-heartedness; and these together make one really happy. Indeed, the later discoveries of medical science are teaching us that physical health is secured only by a high degree of power of resistance against enemies which life cannot avoid. But this power of resistance—as one may soon discover—is not a merely physical capacity; it is quite as much a moral quality and in large part the product of moral effort. Here, then, are two secrets of happiness which are fundamentally inseparable: Life directed by faith in the permanent moral order of the world, and Work done in that same faith. Beyond these two, and one other which I shall mention later, all other ways of happiness are secondary, and indeed all else comes of its own accord, according to one’s special needs, if only one holds firmly to these primary sources of spiritual power.
I go on to mention a few of these subordinate rules for happiness which may be deduced from the experience of life. They are mere maxims of conduct to which many others might be added.
We need, for instance, to be at the same time both brave and humble. That is the meaning of the strange word of the Apostle: “When I am weak, then am I strong.” Either quality alone does more harm than good.
Again, one must not make pleasure an end, for pleasure comes of its own accord in the right way of life, and the simplest, the cheapest, and the most inevitable pleasures are the best.
Again, one can bear all troubles, except two: worry and sin.
Further, all that is really excellent has a small beginning. The good does not show its best at once.