And he that hath so many causes of joy, and so great, is very much in love with sorrow and peevishness, who loves all these pleasures, and chooses to sit down upon his little handful of thorns."

Some may say that cheerfulness is of inborn temperament, yet, even should we so admit, it can be nevertheless true that cheerfulness of mind is susceptible of cultivation, and where necessary, it should be. To all who profess the gospel obligation this should be the case especially.

I remember an aged brother's once relating to me of the time the Saints were driven from Far West, Missouri. Ere he and his family left Canada a former pastor, a Presbyterian, told the brother if he went after the Mormons, he would be robbed of all he had. So, upon returning to Canada with his family, he was met by this same minister who remarked: "There, what did I tell you?" "Well, they have not robbed me of all I possessed!" "What have you left?" "My family and above all," laying his hand over his heart, "my faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ!" Even mobocracy did not cast a cloud of gloomy doubt or distrust over his soul; there were many who could say the same.

Young people need to be of pleasant disposition; for all the world lies at their feet. Let your every footstep leave a smiling impress to cheer some one else.

If at any time we manifest an unpleasing frame of mind, I am sure there is nothing so uncalled for and unprofitable. It can do no good, improve no condition, change no circumstance, create no good. "Anger resteth in the bosom of fools," said Solomon. I presume it may pass through the bosoms of the "wise," but they are utterly unwise who harbor it.

There are people who create imaginary mounts, for some folks sing:

"When I upon Mount Zion stand
And count my sufferings o'er."

They like to tell all their "trials" and "vexations;" they'll fondle all their troubles, and huddle them together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and listens to their chirping. They will acknowledge they are unpleasant things and still prove to you that they like to drag out a lot of "horrors" and place them on exhibition! I don't like those two lines I've quoted; for I believe the

redeemed will have better things to think about and talk of aside from old musty "trials and tribulations;" there will be immortalized life, and God's glory to view; and Paul wrote: "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us." James wrote: "The trying of your faith worketh patience." Paul wrote: "Patient in tribulation." Patience and cheerfulness go together, alway. Irritability of temperament and patience are strangers to each other and cannot become reconciled.

The work of looking at the brightest side of things instead of the dark should be encouraged by everybody. We are acquainted with a young brother whose only and infant child passed away, and the writer officiated at the funeral. That young father looked through the gloom of the hour and told me there were persons present who never had heard the gospel or even one sermon of a Latter Day Saint, and he was in hope some good might reach their souls! I admired that, and prayed God to bless him.

One's temper will be tried; what is there on earth untried? 'Tis then its strength may be tested. Patient, laborious, cheerful minded men are found largely among celebrated authors, men of science and much study. It is said such were Laplace, Descartes, Newton, and others.

To bear bravely up under any calamity that may befall our career is worthy every soul-effort. It is written of one, Abauzit who was, among other matters, greatly devoted to study the barometer and its variations, having in view the deducing of general laws, regulating atmospheric pressure. He had maintained his efforts in this special direction for about twenty-seven years, his observations occurring daily the record being made on sheets expressly prepared therefor.

It happened that, on a day, a new servant who had been employed, went about displaying her good will by putting things in good order; and the professor's study came in for its share of her orderly service. But when Abauzit entered he asked, "What have you done with the paper that was around the barometer?" "Oh, sir," she replied, "it was so dirty that I burnt it, and put in its place this paper, which you will see is quite new." The scientist stood with folded arms, and after some moments of internal struggle, in calmness of tone, he remarked, "You have destroyed the results of twentyseven years' labor; in future touch nothing whatever in this room."

Among the things surrounding human existence conducive to cheerfulness of disposition, is the cultivation of love for the true, beautiful, and good in nature and art. The love for flowers, whose beauty and fragrance greet with salutary effect the senses of sight and smell, enlivens thoughts of admiration and provokes exclamations of pleasurable delight that cast a radiance o'er the mental temperament, and thus produce a happy result. Love for birds of sweet song or bright plumage is the cultivation of good "taste."

Music, with all its enrapturing tones of melody, the enlivening strains of soundharmony and thrilling notes that set the soul a whirl with ecstatic charm, coursing "every fiber of our being," grants us a foretaste of bliss beyond! Music is of divine origin, else why this image-likeness of the Infinite, possessed of such power of finger touch and lip-expression that exhibit the hidden powers of inner mind by such breakings forth of song from instrument and mouth? I feel sorry for a person whose soul remains untouched by the power of its enchanting spell!

Whate'er we may think of the harsh times in which Martin Luther lived, whate'er may have been the boldness of his exterior, and however intensified were the strong movements of his being in disapprobation of the oppression of his day, he yet found time and tenderness of feel ing existing amidst it all to write: "Gayety and courage-innocent gayety, and rational, honorable courage are the best medicine for young men, and for old men too; for all men against sad thoughts." It has been observed of him that next to music, if not before it, Luther loved children and flowers! Thus we find that, the great rigid man had the tenderness of a good woman's heart. A pleasant temper has a very good wearing quality. It is the sun-lit weather of our hearts.

It

yields harmony of soul, and is a wooing song to which no words may be set. Weary nature may be recruited by its sweet influence to new strength. A per

son given to worry and discontent only enervates his nerve-forces and bedims his vision, darkening the mind, and making life unhappy and undesirable. The maintenance of equanimity of temper with an habitual cheerfulness enables a person to prosecute life's work with a vigor otherwise impossible to possess! So intricately are interwoven spirit with nerve that the frame of mind has much to do with the nervous condition; and anything of a physical or mental cause that enfeebles the nervous system produces gloominess of mind, evil forebodings; gives one "the blues," and distracts, harasses everyone with whom he may come into contact unless others should be guarded. They are like rasping files that cut into every smooth thing they light upon. People require to exercise care in this regard, and Christian people especially. For what right has a child of God to wear a frown, to scowl at everything he sees, and sputter at everyone he meets, or look like vinegar when in a prayer meeting, or "be of a sad countenance?" What is expected to be gained by such un-christly living? Surely the hope of immortality and eternal life cannot yield such aspects of countenance, nor sound of words.

The student will find in the writings of Homer, Horace, Shakespeare, and Montaigne, that they were men who relished life and were keenly susceptible of enjoyment; such as everyone should be. We require sunshine as well as the cloud of trying tempest. But we should remember that in nature there is vastly more of sunlight than of the shadow of cloud. So with us should there be, and no one holds the moral right to darken his or her own life nor that of others by unpleasant words or hateful deeds.

The eye is a wonderful organ and capable of great expression. A clear, bright, beaming eye can shed brightness and joy upon our life. It can warm cold hearts, and throw sweet melody into the ears of a sad heart; for cannot human hearts receive of song? It can illumine the darkness of ignorance and lend of lustre to the power of intellect. Without the glow of cheerful eyes, beautiful flowers would bloom in vain, and the rapturous sights of the star-lit dome remain unacknowledged. There can be no reasonable doubt that cheerfulness of dispo

sition is a mighty source of life's enjoyment. It surely seems to be even a safeguard of character. A religious writer said: "Cheerfulness is the first thing, cheerfulness is the second, and cheerfulnness is a third." The Apostle Paul evidently knew of this when he wrote the great sermon phrase: "For I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."

It is written of Sir Walter Scott that: "Everybody loved him." His soul, filled with "the milk of human kindness," won for him the regard and admiration of

many.

Scott would say: "Give me an honest laughter."

There is a laughter of the heart that often contains more remedial power than the voice of song.

If "much laughter is sin," it is so because prolonged, hearty laughter is liable, and often has produced physical harm, violating a law of nature; and it is written, "sin is the transgression of law." O, for a disposition in everybody that can perceive a silver lining to every dark cloud!

Even the dark cloud of death has the golden beaming margin of the hope of immortality and eternal life! The grave has the promise of God's infinite opening power. Pain has its after-ease, sorrow, its music of the soul, reaching out "nearer my God to thee." O, for the cheerful reclining upon the everlasting arms that can say:

Beneath the darkest cloud,
God's hand I see;

E'en though it be a shroud
That showeth me.

History records of Sydney Smith that "whether working as country curate or as parish rector, he was always kind, laborious, patient, and exemplary, exhibiting in every sphere of life the spirit of a Christian, the kindness of a pastor, and the honor of a gentleman."

At the time the French revolution broke out there was a Frenchman by the name of Adanson. He was a botanist and about seventy years of age. Through the conflict he passed, coming out the worse therefor from the fact that he lost his fortune, high positions, and gardens. But his courage, resignation, and patience stood by him. Cuvier wrote of him: "It was a touching sight to see the poor old

man, bent over the embers of a decaying fire, trying to trace characters with a feeble hand on a little bit of paper which he held, forgetting all the pains of life in some new idea in natural history, which came to him like some beneficent fairy to cheer him in his loneliness." After a time the Directory gave him a small pension, but Napoleon doubled it. We may note that cheerfulness and hopefulness accompany all large, healthy natures. Such really contagious.

are

I once met with an aged gentlemen in Northern Ohio some eighteen years ago. He was a confirmed invalid, having been confined to his iron-bound rocker for over twenty years from the effects of rheumatism, which one man declared was worse than atheism. This old man's legs were so stiffened that he could only put the right foot over on to the left ankle; raise one hand to the top of his head, the other to his mouth only; the neck was stiff; the jaw set but open about a quarter of an inch. He could read a newspaper by placing a cane through on the folded side and holding the lower corner of the other side. Ilis food was torn in small particles. One evening I was present when he was eating his supper, and he pushed some food in his mouth and, using a case-knife to finish the injection, laughingly remarked: "Ha, ha, ha; that's the way a boy loads his pop-gun." Cheering sunshine even there! And how much more bearable such a cultivated disposition caused life to be than had he sat murmuringly there.

I once met with a lady who from spinal trouble had been confined to a wheeled chair in the daytime for seventeen years. Patient, cheerful, employed in reading, knitting, etc., she would greet a friend or visitor pleasantly. She told me of a sister who was attacked with symptoms that indicated that a like affliction was coming upon her. She asked the former if she thought she would likely come to a similar condition. The reply was, "Probably." "No," said she, "never will I suffer as you have suffered and are now suffering," and she committed suicide, so gloomy was the outlook; so lacking of cheer, and so vacant of hope. But, O, the terrible result of the harsh act!

There are persons who would fain be pretty dolls, and neither laugh nor talk for fear of being accounted trivial. They are of the goody-goody sort, of whom Goethe once exclaimed: "Oh! if they had but the heart to commit an absurdity!" This, of course referred to that class of people whom he considered to lack heartiness and good nature.

Even the Lord fell not in favor with long-facedness. He said people who practiced for effect's sake "disfigured their faces." Be natural! Assume nothing but what you are! And never "be of a sad countenance" only in part at a funeral, possibly.

We believe "the true basis of cheerfulness is love, hope, and patience." Love cherishes hopeful and generous thoughts of others. "Its face is ever directed towards happiness." Love most surely lives in an atmosphere of cheerfulness. It may cost nothing but at times the struggling of soul-selfishness to overcome, that the ill thing may let the light of the former shine out.

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care

There are times when good and kindly disposed conduct may meet with friendly return, but we should naught for that, for if anyone can afford to act so toward you, you should certainly be able to gently bear therewith as one who would do good irrespective of results. You can greatly and generously afford to do so! Leigh Hunt said: "Power itself hath not one half the might of gentleness."

What better thing could Jesus have meant when he said: "Lay up for your selves treasures in heaven," than by referring to the rich harvest of good things that grow out from seeds of cheerful dispositions? Bentham wrote: "Every act of kindness is, in fact, an exercise of power, and a stock of friendship laid up; and why should not power exercise itself in the production of pleasure as of pain?" Kindness may not always find itself expressed in the bestowal of gifts, but in "gentleness and generosity of spirit." Everyone should be his own guard against small troubles, which if you encourage, are likely to grow and seem very great ones. It has been truly said that, "the chief source of worry in the world is not real but imaginary evilsmall vexations and trivial afflictions." It is wiser to cast them off than to nurse and pet them, thus distressing your life's power, and unnecessarily taxing your mind

with a useless burden. If this is not done. a person is likely to become querulous, moody and unsympathetic. Your conversation is filled with regrets and rehearsals of large (?) and minor perplexities that may not interest you auditor.

Anybody who broods over his "troubles," real or imaginary, gets to be unsociable and think everyone else is that way. The way to look at all good is to view it from the small end of the telescope; and look upon all "ill," "trial," and "difficulty" from the large end, thus removing as far off as possible all such things. Progress of any type is never made by living in the past. If the past has not been what might have been wished for, the future lies before us full of golden opportunities.

Why should we make our breast a storehouse of pain, anxiety, and awful care? Why heave sighs, and overcharge the heart with more to bear than nature has imposed? If we do this we inflict its ill effects not alone upon ourselves but upon others as well.

This kind of a disposition cannot be encouraged by aught than mere selfishness, a selfishness void of any admixture of sympathetic consideration of those with whom we associate. Would it be too harsh to remark that it looks like "willfulness in the wrong direction?" Is it not willfulness, if we could avoid it but will not? Saint Francis de Sales wrote: "How carefully we should cherish the little virtues which spring up at the foot of the cross; humility, patience, meekness, benignity, bearing one another's burdens, condescension, softness of heart, cheerfulness, cordiality, compassion, forgiving injuries, simplicity, candor,-all, in short, of that sort of little virtues. They, like unobtrusive violets, love the shade; like them, are sustained by dew; and though, like them, they make little show, they shed a sweet odor on all around." He further observed: "If you would fall into any extreme, let it be on the side of gentleness. The human mind is so constructed that it resists rigor, and yields to softness. A mild word quenches anger, as water quenches the rage of fire; and by benignity any soil may be rendered fruitful. Truth uttered with courtesy, is heaping coals of fire on the head -or rather throwing roses in the face. How can we resist a foe whose weapons are pearls and diamonds?"

Perthes wrote to a young man: "Go forward with hope and confidence. This is the advice of an old man, who has had a full share of the burden and heat of life's day. We must stand upright, happen what may, and, for this end, we must cheerfully resign ourselves to the varied influences of this many-colored life. You may call this levity, and you are partly right-for flowers and colors are but trifles light as air-but such levity is a constituent portion of our human nature, without which it would sink under the weight of time. While on earth we must still play with earth, and with that which blooms and fades upon its breast. The consciousness of this mortal life being but the way to a higher goal by no means

It is the lives, like the stars which simply pour down on us the calm light of their bright faithful being, up to which we look, and out of which we gather the deepest calm and courage. No man or woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, gentle, pure, and good without somebody being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness. - Philip Brooke,

As We look forth this December day upon the pure soft mantle of ermine which covers the earth like a carpet and clings to each bush and shrub, our thoughts go forward to the time when the gentle winds of the south, aided by the indirect rays of the winter sun, will cause them to melt and, mingling with the dust of the earth, they will be trampled by the foot of man and beast into the mire of the street.

Beautiful snowflakes! Spotless and pure, have you no higher destiny than this? Why did not the heavens retain you, the clouds make of you a covering or a white-winged chariot in which to ride forth in the blue dome of heaven? But I pause in my questioning; for the inner voice of my soul is speaking, and I listen and learn. Spotless and pure you fell to earth, obeying the high behest of Him who ordered your existence. When the earth has opened her cold bosom you will trinkle through her unseen crevices, opening up her boundless wealth to the toiling hand of industry, and, as the rootlets of plant and shrub, bush and tree push farther and farther down, you will spring to meet them, and while being lifted by them

into the upper world, the light of day, you will impart to them the fertilizing, life-giving particles obtained from your dark and silent prison, and again in purity untouched, your heavengiven mission accomplished, you will sparkle on the tender buds of leaf and plant.

Later the glorious, life-diffusing sun will gather you up in mist and vapor to the great reservoirs of heaven, and, when the earth is parched and dry, when plant and bud are drooping, your crystal drops will come down in refreshing showers to gladden the parched earth and rejoice the hearts of its weary toilers.

Beautiful snow, spotless and pure, emblem and type of heaven's unceasing ministry to man! What lesson shall we learn from you to-day, how conform our lives to this great universal law of divine love?

Not far from nineteen hundred years ago, in the silence of night, while shepherds watched and angels sang their notes of praise, there came to the earth a little babe, spotless and pure as the fairest snowflake resting to-day upon the earth. He was not born in a palace, nor cradled beneath royal trappings, but opened his wondering child-eyes beneath the roof of a stable, where beasts of the field were sheltered. This was not an accident. Men talk of accidents, but no such things have place in the economy of God. The marvelous love and goodness of which Jesus was the type and the embodiment reached even his poor, abused but dumb creatures, if indeed it did not first begin