Choosing Happiness
True happiness comes from union with God and conformity with His Will.
Mary Wilder Tileston preaches about the everlasting joy and happiness found in God, where souls awakened to His presence see earth as a fatherland and face the future with courage and light hearts. She emphasizes that happiness is a natural portion for those who have chosen God, as He is the source of infinite joy and communicates happiness to the soul in union with Him. Tileston highlights that true happiness is a perfect alignment and cheerful compliance of the soul with the Will of God, making Heaven itself a state of eternal joy and conformity.
Text
In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day.
PSALMS 89:16
Now first to souls who thus awake
Seems earth a fatherland:
A new and endless life they take
With rapture from His hand.
The fears of death and of the grave
Are whelmed beneath the sea,
And every heart, now light and brave,
May face the things to be.
FRIEDRICH VON HARDENBERG
HAPPINESS, let us understand this well, is as truly our portion here as above; it cannot fail to fall within the lot of those who have chosen for their portion Him whose nature is one with infinite, unalienable Joy. God, in communicating Himself to the soul, of necessity communicates happiness; and all souls in union with Him have returned to their central rest, and are happy, in exact proportion to the closeness and fulness of their union,--happy, in other words, by so much as they have within them of God.
DORA GREENWELL
HAPPINESS, Heaven itself, is nothing else but a perfect conformity, a cheerful and eternal compliance of all the powers of the soul with the Will of God.
SAMUEL SHAW, 1669
Sermon Outline
- The Nature of Happiness
- The Source of Happiness
- Happiness comes from God's Will
- Perfect conformity with God's Will is happiness
Key Quotes
“HAPPINESS, let us understand this well, is as truly our portion here as above; it cannot fail to fall within the lot of those who have chosen for their portion Him whose nature is one with infinite, unalienable Joy.” — Mary Wilder Tileston
“HAPPINESS, Heaven itself, is nothing else but a perfect conformity, a cheerful and eternal compliance of all the powers of the soul with the Will of God.” — Mary Wilder Tileston
Application Points
- Seek to deepen your union with God through prayer and devotion.
- Align your will with God's Will by seeking His guidance and direction.
- Cultivate a perfect conformity with God's Will in all aspects of your life.