They
have left me the sun and moon, a loving wife, and many friends to
pity me, and some to relieve me; and I can still discourse, and,
unless I list, they have not taken away my merry countenance and
my cheerful spirit, and a good conscience; they have still left me
the providence of God, and all the promises of the Gospel, and my
religion, and my hopes of heaven, and my charity to them, too; and
still I sleep and digest, I eat and drink, I read and meditate....
And he that hath so many causes of joy, and so great, is very much
in love with sorrow and peevishness, who loves all these
pleasures, and chooses to sit down upon his little handful
of thorns." (1)
Although cheerfulness of disposition is very much a matter of
inborn temperament, it is also capable of being trained and
cultivated like any other habit. We may make the best of life, or
we may make the worst of it; and it depends very much upon
ourselves whether we extract joy or misery from it. There are
always two sides of life on which we can look, according as we
choose--the bright side or the gloomy. We can bring the power of
the will to bear in making the choice, and thus cultivate the
habit of being happy or the reverse. We can encourage the
disposition of looking at the brightest side of things, instead of
the darkest. And while we see the cloud, let us not shut our eyes
to the silver lining.
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