May 13

Having food and raiment, let us therewith be content. - 1 Timothy 6:8.

HAPPINESS does not depend upon external things, but upon the principle and disposition of the mind, and therefore its acquisition is as possible to us, in our present condition, as in any imaginable one. If we make our observations of those who have risen from poverty to affluence, shall we find that they have advanced in contentment as they have increased in wealth or honour? They have gained by their ascent greater and more awful responsibility-more arduous duty-more anxious solicitude -more exposedness to temptation. But what have they gained in solid satisfaction, or in mental tranquillity? How often have they thought of the “dangers that are past” with regret? What says Solomon, after a thousand trials?-“All is vanity and vexation of spirit.”

The things of earth were never designed to satisfy us. God never intended his people should find happiness in any thing short of himself. In vain, therefore, do we “seek the living among the dead.” In every such pursuit we resemble children ascending hill after hill to catch the sky, which rests on none of them; or a number of patients who, by a change of posture, are seeking relief which can only come from an inward cure. We too frequently blame our position for what is wrong in ourselves, and forget that the ground of our discontent is not our wants, but our wishes. There is scarcely any condition so low but may satisfy our wants, and there is none so high as to satisfy our desires. If we live according to the laws of nature, reason, and religion, we shall never be poor; if we live according to those of fancy and opinion, we shall never be rich.

Let us, therefore, cultivate happiness within, not seeking it in a superior station, but in a contented mind, reducing our wishes rather than enlarging our means; making the most of present enjoyment and of actual possession, in distinction from future and imaginary. Let us learn with the apostle “both how to be abased, and how to abound,” in all our affairs confiding in the providence of our heavenly Father, as concerned in fixing the bounds of our habitation, and as engaged in making “all things work together for our good.” We should ever remember that “this is not our rest;” that we are only strangers and pilgrims upon earth; and that in a very little time it will be a matter of indifference to us whether we have been poor or rich, splendid or obscure.

A well-grounded hope of heaven will reconcile us to any privations we maybe called to bear upon earth; and, should we even walk in the midst of trouble, this will revive us, and we shall be enabled to say, “I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”