THE JOYS OF CHEERFULNESS
Cheerfulness! How sweet in infancy, how lovely in youth, how saintly in age! There are a few noble natures whose very presence carries sunshine with them wherever they go; a sunshine which means pity for the poor, sympathy for the suffering, help for the unfortunate, and benignity toward all. How such a face enlivens every other face it meets, and carries into every one vivacity, joy and gladness.
At the same time, life will always be to a large extent what we make it. Each mind makes its own little world. The cheerful mind makes it pleasant, the discontented mind makes it miserable. “My mind to me a kingdom is,” applies alike to the peasant and the monarch. Life is, for the most part, but the mirror of our own individual selves.
PRINCIPLE AND CONSCIENCE
The true character acts rightly, whether in secret or in the sight of others. That boy was well trained who, when asked why he did not pocket some pears, for nobody was there to see, replied: “Yes, there was; I was there to see myself; and I don’t intend ever to see myself do a dishonest thing.” This is a simple but not inappropriate illustration of principle, or conscience, dominating in the character, and exercising a noble protectorate over it; not merely a passive influence, but an active power regulating life.
Such a principle goes on molding the character hourly and daily, growing with a force that operates every moment. Without this dominating influence, character has no protection, but is constantly liable to fall away before temptation; and every such temptation succumbed to, every act of meanness or dishonesty, however slight, causes self-degradation. It matters not whether the act be successful or not, discovered or concealed; the culprit is no longer the same, but another person; and he is pursued by a secret uneasiness, by self-reproach, or the workings of what we call conscience, which is the inevitable doom of the guilty.
WILL DISTINGUISHED FROM CONSCIENCE
We have within us that controlling element or power known as the will which should be distinguished from mere impulse, and which gives us the ability of passing upon and determining suggestions made to our mind and of allowing or disapproving the thought or possible impulse which gives them use. Will is distinguished from conscience in that it marks the determination and lends the force which makes conscience potent, drawing us nearer to the perfection which self-denial and self-control create and, let us hope, to the end—
“That God which ever lives and loves,
One God, one law, one element,