THAT is happiness? Can you tell me, children?
“Well,” says noisy Ben, “I was happy, I tell you, last holiday, a deal happier than I am now, when I have to go to school. I went fishing and riding and swimming and sailing, and it was just splendid. Now it’s all books and study from morning till night. I am getting almost tired of it already. I would like holiday time all the year round.”
“I am most happy,” says gentle Annie Ashton, “when I am helping mamma. I like my school ever so much. We have a nice teacher, and there are some very pleasant girls there. We have real good times together. But I think I am the happiest, the deepest-down kind of happiness, you know, when I am helping mamma. It seems to make her so glad.”
Annie comes nearer it than Ben. No doubt Ben had a grand, good time, and found his sport very enjoyable. But Annie’s happiness goes deeper; and lasts longer.
Is there any better kind of happiness than Annie’s even?
“I feel very happy,” says sweet Mary Minton, “when I think I love Jesus and that He loves me.”
That is all she says; but you can see in her daily conduct how happy she is. She goes singing about her work; she is lively in her play; she tries to help her mother all she can; and if you watch her, you can see that she has real deep happiness coming from something within.
Now, children, it is just where Mary finds it that we all must find it. Ben’s happiness is a good kind, so far as it goes. I like boys, and girls too, to enjoy themselves at their sports. But this kind of happiness does not go very far. Annie’s happiness goes farther, because it’s a deeper and better kind. It is a kind of happiness that don’t stop, as Ben’s does, when the play is over. Annie carries the satisfaction of being helpful to her mother with her even when she is engaged in other duties, or is at her play, and it helps to make her happy.
But Mary has found out the secret of true happiness. She loves Christ, and knows that Christ loves her. So she carries her happiness with her wherever she goes and into whatever she does.
Are there not many of the dear children who read this who want to find the true happiness? I hope that there are. It is to know and believe that Jesus loves you.
ML 08/11/1918