Talk Happiness. The world is sad enough
Without your woes. No path is wholly rough;
Look for the places that are smooth and clear,
And speak of these to rest the weary ear
Of earth, so hurt by one continuous strain
Of human discontent and grief and pain.
Nothing is more worth while in this world than encouragement. No mission is more divine than the encourager’s. In no other way can we do more good than by going about, speaking words of cheer. In Westmeal, near Antwerp, there is a convent of Trappist monks who represent a strangely perverted conception of Christianity. There are thirty six monks who live there together, under the vow of perpetual silence. They dress in rough sackcloth, with rope about their waists, their heads shaven and their beards undressed. They live on bread, sour milk, and vegetable, sleep on hard boards, and spend their days in frigid and solemn silence. If a visitor speaks to one of these monks, the monk draws his cowl closer about his head and moves away. Each day he walks in the garden and looks into a grave opened and ready for the one of the company who is first to die.
This, it is claimed, is a high ideal of Christian living. This order of monks suppose that they are illustrating in a lofty way the holiness and beauty of Christianity. But it is not such living that the New Testament teaches. Jesus Christ did not live such a life. He did not walk about in silence. He was the sunniest of men. He was ready to give cheer to all He met. He taught His followers to let their light shine on the world’s darkness. He would have us hide within our hearts our cares and suffering, and give out only blessing and gladness.
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