who
knows the true and increasing joy of the manly life. The happiest
woman in the world is the mother who is living for her child. It is in
working out the salvation of other people that we find the true joy of
our own. It is this joy that carries the martyr through his fiery
tasks with a song and a shout. To be able at the end of our days to
look up to God and say, "I have finished the work thou gavest me to
do," is to have the best wine at the last of our feast. We must have
joy; it is indispensable. It makes us healthy and strong and enables
us to be of some use in the world. It is so necessary to our best
becoming and doing that we must put away everything that increases it.
We must have the joy of truth and virtue, of duty and sacrifice, of
hope and love, which is the joy of the eternal life. Christ thus holds
out to us a joy that lasts, and one that satisfies forever.

Jesus was no cynic, no ascetic, and no fanatic. He loved the great
outward world, and was the friend of all men. He was hated only by the
Pharisees, if to these He spoke sharply, His words to the children were
sweet as a mother's, and in His words about the birds and the flowers
you hear the tones of a lover. He loved the lakes of sweet Galilee,
her hills, her fields and her olive groves; and among them often took
His disciples apart to rest awhile. Adopt Christ's views of God; of
the future; Christianize your opinions, your character and your
conduct, and you will have manly joy even in the midst of sorrow.
Christ lived much in communion with God. He lived much out of doors,
in the fields and among trees, the birds and the flowers.

We must come back to nature. Happy the man who owns a piece of ground
in the country and lives on it betimes, where he can hear the robins
singing their hymns and the winds chanting their litanies; where he can
see the sun rise and feel the hush of the hills; where the spirit that
is in the beautiful world can touch and bless him as it did the blessed
Christ.

Brothers, I wish you great joy. Live in the constant sense of the
Heavenly Father's loving presence, and of nature's veracity and
friendly intention. Distrust all doctrines, all opinions and all ways
of living that destroy manly joyousness. Never lose sight of the fact
that a noble life is a truthful life. Truth is a trust. He who has
discovered any portion of useful truth has something in trust for
mankind. God is the author of truth, and