Cooperation with God.

the cooperator with God, must act in a similar way. He must come and give himself up to his Maker's service, and aim at carrying out all his plans. He must first of all strive to bring men back to their allegiance to him, since without this, every other plan for promoting human happiness must fail. Then he must do all he can to promote the present enjoyment of all God's creatures, in every way in his power. He must love happiness on a small scale, as well as on a large scale, he must wish that all around him should enjoy themselves now, as well as a thousand years hence, and a thousand years hence, as well as now. This benevolence must reign so constantly in the heart, as to give an habitual character to the feelings, and expression to the countenance, and tone to the voice, so that the presence and the influence of the cooperator with God, may speak in the same language to all around him, which the expression of the face of nature so plainly conveys to the heart that is reconciled and forgiven, and feels that its Maker is really its Friend.

This, then, my reader, is the work which you must do, if you wish to cooperate with God. These are the objects you múst aim at,—not occasionally,—not now and then merely, when some details of suffering obtrude themselves upon your mind, and awaken a temporary feeling,-but steadily, constantly, unweariedly, as the great business of life. Your own happiness will thus indeed be much promoted, but your aim in pursuing these objects must not be your own happiness, but the accomplishment of the objects themselves,--extending the reign of holiness, and fulfilling your duty as a grateful and obedient child of God.

7*

THE reader may perhaps be surprised to find in a work on doing good, that one of the first chapters of practical directions is devoted to self. But our duties in respect to the promotion of our own happiness, are very often and very sadly neglected. There is selfishness enough in the world, no doubt,—and eager desires to promote one's own interests in respect to property, and rights, and influence, and power, but there is very little sober, judicious, steady effort to secure personal happiness.

And yet it is plainly a duty to do this. If the happiness of the whole community is desirable, then is, of course, the happiness of every individual who is a member of it. And each one who aims at promoting universal enjoyment, must take especial care to secure his own. While he feels that his own enjoyment is no more important than that of every other individual, he must also remember that it is no less so. In fact, his desire to secure the happiness of others, is actually regulated in the Savior's law, by the measure of his interest in his own.

And here I ought to point out to my young readers a distinction, which, though simply metaphysical in its character, is very important to a full understanding of this subject. It is often said that all men are pursuing happiness, and must, by the very constitution and law of their nature, -that they may mistake the mode, as they often do, but that there is no want of the disposition to seek it.

Now it will appear, on a more attentive consideration of human nature, that all men are not pursuing happiness. They have other objects which they pursue as ends, not as mere means. For example, a man in political life is pressing forward, and making every effort to obtain a certain

Love of fame or of power distinct from love of happiness.

place of influence. It is not, however, from any calculation he has made that this is the way to find happiness. He will tell you, if you ask him, that he has never enjoyed any happiness since he entered the scene of strife, hatred and war, in which he is involved, and that he never expects to find any till he leaves it. Why then, you ask, does he not abandon the ground? Because there is, in the very constitution of his soul, a thirst for power and fame, as well as a thirst for happiness, and circumstances have so inflamed and excited the one, that he scarcely heeds the other. He presses forward in his course, because he is ambitious, not because he wishes to be happy; that is, he seeks political elevation on its own account,- -as an end,he feels a thirst for it, which thirst can be slaked in no other way than by the attainment of the particular thing he seeks. It is true that there is a kind of pleasure in indulging this and all the other simple propensities of the human heart: but it is not a calculation on this pleasure which carries a man onward. The mind rests or reposes on the power, or the fame, as its ultimate end,—as a good in itself,—not as a means merely of securing happiness.

Thus, so far from all seeking happiness, there is a great number and variety of objects which we seek, each of which is felt by the heart to be a good in itself, and is sought on its own account. Sometimes we distinctly understand that the path which we are taking, is leading us actually away from happiness, and yet we will press on in it. How frequently does this take place in reference to some besetting sin. We press on to the committing of it, conscious, all the time, that we are only making misery for ourselves. It is not in such a case that under the influence of a hallucination, we think that sin is a means of happiness, but that under the dominion of one of the original and simple impulses of our nature, we love sin rather than happiJust as a hungry man eats, not under the influence of a cool calculation that food is a necessary means of

ness.

Love of happiness often overpowered.

The merchants.

preserving life, but impelled by an instinct of nature, resting on the food as its ultimate object. He will even, when, in a starving condition, he comes upon an unexpected supply, obey this impulse to such a degree, as to destroy the very life which he ought to endeavor to save; and that too, when he is warned that this will be the effect. He does not mistake the way to preserve his life,—but the cravings of starvation, demand food so loudly as to overpower even the love of life.*

So the love for happiness is overpowered by the tumultory clamors of the crowd of ungodly lusts and passions which fill the human bosom. Men are employed eagerly, indefatigably, in making money,-not for the sake of happiness, but for the sake of the money. The mind reposes upon possession as the good,-the ultimate end which it seeks. Instead of desiring happiness, and planning with reference to the attainment of it, the thought perhaps never comes into the head, from one end of the year to the other. Ask a hundred merchants whether the way they have adopted for the management of their business is the best, i. e. the most profitable way, and they will all be ready with an answer; they will show you that they have looked at that subject all around, and are pursuing their present plans with the deliberate expectation that they are the best they can form. But ask them whether their plans of life are those which they think best adapted to secure their highest happiness, and they will stare at your question in vacant surprise. If they give any answer,

* If any of my readers entertain views of the human mind which lead them to maintain, that by a careful analysis, we shall find that obedience to these impulses is, in fact, only one of the forms which love of happiness assumes, they must not consider these remarks as intended to conflict with that theory at all. I use the phrase, "love of happiness," in its ordinary, popular signification;-as this work is designed solely for popular use; and for all popular and practical purposes, there is a wide distinction between the rational search for happiness, and blind obedience to the instincts and impulses of nature, as all will admit, whatever may be their metaphysical theories.

Happy rather than rich.

Questions to the reader.

it will be a mechanical one,— —or if they really look at the question, in order to give an honest reply, ninety of them will see that it is a question they never have considered. They have been living on from year to year, obeying certain impulses, but never forming any serious plans for happiness, or even taking the subject into account.

"He never will be very rich," said a gentleman describing a certain Christian merchant, "because he had rather be happy than rich." It was a philosophical distinction, and it designated a state of mind which is not very often found among those who have the opportunity of making a fortune.

You have, therefore, my reader, two questions to ask yourself in reference to the subject of this chapter. First, are you happy now? Consider and answer it understandingly. Is your mind at peace, and does the current of time as it passes on, bring hours of enjoyment to you, day after day. Look back to the past week; think of the feelings with which you have engaged in your duties; call to mind your employments, your connections with others, your daily routine of duty, and the manner in which you have performed it; and then ask yourself the question whether you are happy. Or is there something wrong? Is there a corroding, restless uneasiness,-an unsettled, anxious mind, such that your days pass on without much real en joyment?

The second question is whether you wish for happiness, and are willing to plan for it. Or is your heart set upon making money, or gaining fame, or gratifying appetite or passion? These impulses will lead you in a very different path from that which conducts to happiness, and it is very important that you should decide distinctly which you will pursue. If it is happiness which you really wish for, and if, for the sake of securing it, you are willing to give up what is inconsistent with it,-sin, appetite, covetousness, ambition, passion, and every thing else which comes in