LESSON 3: The Secret of Happiness

Simon, some persons are naturally more happy than others. Much, very much, depends upon the willingness of man to be led and directed by the Father's spirit which lives within him. Have you not read in the Scriptures the words of the wise man, “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts”? And also that such spirit-led mortals say: “The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places; yes, I have a goodly heritage.” “A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked,” for “a good man shall be satisfied from within himself."

A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance and is a continual feast. Better is a little with the reverence of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fatted ox and hatred therewith. Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without rectitude. A merry heart does good like a medicine. Better is a handful with composure than a superabundance with sorrow and vexation of spirit.

Much of man's sorrow is born of the disappointment of his ambitions and the wounding of his pride. Although men owe a duty to themselves to make the best of their lives on earth, having thus sincerely exerted themselves, they should cheerfully accept their lot and exercise ingenuity in making the most of that which has fallen to their hands. All too many of man's troubles take origin in the fear soil of his own natural heart. The wicked flee when no man pursues. The wicked are like the troubled sea, for it cannot rest, but its waters cast up mire and dirt; there is no peace, says God, for the wicked.

Seek not, then, for false peace and transient joy but rather for the assurance of faith and the sureties of divine sonship which yield composure, contentment, and supreme joy in the spirit. UB 149:5.2 Prov 20:27; Ps 16:6; Ps 37:16; Prov 14:14; Prov 15:13, 16, 17; Prov 16:8; Prov 17:22; Eccl 4:6; Prov 28:1; Isa 57:20, 21.

PROSPERITY NOT A TOKEN OF DIVINE FAVOR

All too long have your fathers believed that prosperity was the token of divine approval; that adversity was the proof of God's displeasure. I declare that such beliefs are superstitions. Do you not observe that far greater numbers of the poor joyfully receive the gospel and immediately enter the kingdom? If riches evidence divine favor, why do the rich so many times refuse to believe this good news from heaven?

The Father causes his rain to fall on the just and the unjust; the sun likewise shines on the righteous and the unrighteous. You know about those Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with the sacrifices, but I tell you these Galileans were not in any manner sinners above all their fellows just because this happened to them. You also know about the eighteen men upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, killing them. Think not that these men who were thus destroyed were offenders above all their brethren in Jerusalem. These folks were simply innocent victims of one the accidents of time. UB 166:4.3 Matt 5:45; Luke 13:1-3.