Page:MyPrayerBookHappinessInGoodness.djvu/82

 do imply  some  degree  of  self-sacrifice,  they  almost instantly repay  us  a  hundredfold. The opportunities are frequent,  but  we  show  no  eagerness  either  in  looking out  for  them,  or  in  embracing  them. What inference are  we  to  draw  from  all  this? Surely this:  That it is  next  to  impossible  to  be  habitually  kind,  except  by the  help  of  divine  grace  and  upon  supernatural  motives. Take life  all  through,  its  adversity  as  well  as  its  prosperity, its  sickness  as  well  as  its  health,  its  loss  of  its rights as  well  as  its  enjoyment  of  them,  and  we  shall find that  no  natural  sweetness  of  temper,  much  less  any acquired philosophical  equanimity,  is  equal  to  the  support of  a  uniform  habit  of  kindness. Nevertheless, with the  help  of  grace,  the  habit  of  saying  kind  words is very  quickly  formed,  and  when  once  formed  it  is not  speedily  lost.

t is natural  to  pass  from  the  facility  of  kind  words to its  reward. I find  myself  always  talking  about happiness when  I  am  treating  of  kindness. The fact is the  two  things  go  together;  the  double  reward  of kind  words  is  in  the  happiness  they  cause  in  others  and the happiness  they  cause  in  ourselves. The very  process of uttering  them  is  a  happiness  in  itself. Even the imagining of  them  fills  our  minds  with  sweetness,  and makes our  hearts  glow  pleasurably. Is there  any  happiness in  the  world  like  the  happiness  of  a  disposition made happy  by  the  happiness  of  others? There is  no joy  to  be  compared  with  it. The luxuries  which  wealth can buy,  the  rewards  which  ambition  can  attain,  the pleasures of  art  and  scenery,  the  abounding  sense  of health,  and  the  exquisite  enjoyment  of  mental  creations, are nothing  to  this  pure  and  heavenly  happiness,  where self is  drowned  in  the  blessedness  of  others. Yet this