d other truths. The mariner takes the whole
heavens of astronomy for granted while he shapes his course by a single
star.

In the wish for happiness all men are strangely alike. In their
explanations of it and in their ways of seeking it they are singularly
different. Shall we think of this wish as right, or wrong; as a true
star, or a will-o'-the-wisp? If it is right to wish to be happy, what
are the conditions on which the fulfilment of this wish depends? These
are the two questions with which I would come to Christ, seeking
instruction and guidance.

I. The desire of happiness, beyond all doubt, is a natural desire. It
is the law of life itself that every being seeks and strives toward the
perfection of its kind, the realization of its own specific ideal in
form and function, and a true harmony with its environment. Every drop
of sap in the tree flows toward foliage and fruit. Every drop of blood
in the bird beats toward flight and song. In a conscious being this
movement toward perfection must take a conscious form. This conscious
form is happiness,--the satisfaction of the vital impulse,--the rhythm
of the inward life,--the melody of a heart that has found its keynote.
To say that all men long for this is simply to confess that all men are
human, and that their thoughts and feelings are an essential part of
their life. Virtue means a completed manhood. The joyful welfare of the
soul belongs to the fulness of that ideal. Holiness is wholeness. In
striving to realize the true aim of our being, we find the wish for
happiness implanted in the very heart of our effort.

Now what does Christ say in regard to this natural human wish? Does He
say that it is an illusion? Does He condemn and deny it? Would He have
accepted Goethe's definition: "religion is renunciation"?

Surely such a notion is far from the spirit of Jesus. There is nothing
of the hardness of Stoicism, the coldness of Buddhism, in Christ's
gospel. It is humane, sympathetic, consoling. Unrest and weariness, the
fever of passion and the chill of despair, soul-solitude and
heart-trouble, are the very things that He comes to cure. He begins His
great discourse with a series of beatitudes. "Blessed" is the word.
"Happy" is the meaning. Nine times He rings the changes on that word,
like a silver bell sounding from His fair temple on the mountain-side,
calling all who long for happiness to come to Him and find rest for
their souls.

Christ never asks us to g