Table Of ContentWILLIAM
\
PETER
J
KING
/
How to achieve
happiness
through
attitudes toward one's work, one's
fellow men, and one's God
THE
SEARCH
FOR
HAPPINESS
William
P.
King
' i Library
lOLLEGE
This volume tells how to achieve happiness
through
the
simple
things
of
life
and
through attitudes toward one's work, one's
fellow men, and one's God. It emphasizes a
homespun, down-to-earth philosophy which
may
be
applied
to
anyone's
dailv
living.
It was written by a man who has attained
happiness, and sets forth the author's phi-
losophy
of how
happiness may be found
by anyone in his dailv
life. Serious
things
are treated with a lightness arising out of
true
faith,
are
clarified
and made
vivid
through apt illustration and anecdote.
This volume
will
be welcomed
by
all
whose
lives have fallen beneath a shadow,
and whose
nerves
are
taut and
fraved.
It
offers a proved method
for achieving and
maintaining a happy
life.
ree
ree
? 16. 1926)
i
Diintree
ER 31. 1891)
ABINGDON-COKESBURY
THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS
THE SEARCH
FOR HAPPINESS
By
WILLIAM P. KING
ABINGDON-COKESBURY PRESS
New York
•
Nashville
THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS
Copyright, MCMXLVI
By Stone & Pierce
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rights
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are
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K_
Printed
in
the
United
States
of
America
To
George Harris
Ruskin
Julia
Howard
Feme
Who Have Gladdened the Hearts of
Mother and Father
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2013
http://archive.org/details/searchforhappineOOwill
FOREWORD
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.—Prov. 17:22
It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad.—Luke
15:32
Cast thy burden upon the Lord.—Ps. 55:22
Let all your anxieties fall upon him.—/ Pet. 5:7
(Moffatt)
Do not be troubled.—Matt. 6:31
(Moffatt)
Never be anxious.—Phil. 4:6
(Moffatt)
He hath
sent me
to bind up
the brokenhearted, ...
to
comfort
all
that mourn, ...
to
give unto them beauty
for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for
the
spirit of heaviness.—ha.
61:1-3
If ye know these things, happy are ye
if ye do them.—John
13:17
A distinction has been frequently made between "hap-
piness" as dependent on outward circumstances and "bless-
edness" and
"joy"
as
the
indestructible
qualities of the
inner spirit.
It
is held that the etymology of "happiness"
indicates that which happens
to a person. However,
the
scriptural language does not make
this
distinction, and
the words have a similar meaning of not being conditioned
by
externalities. The term
"happiness"
is
used
in
this
volume in
its highest significance. The word "pleasure"
is sometimes employed
as synonymous with "happiness"
or
"blessedness"
or
"joy," but
it more
strictly
indicates
physical gratifications. When rightly understood the dec-
laration
of John
Stuart
Mill
is
verified
in human
ex-
perience: "Actions are right in proportion as they tend to
produce
happiness, wrong
as
they tend
to produce
the
reverse of happiness."
7
8
THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS
The search for happiness
is a universal quest. In many
mistaken
ways
the
multitudes
pursue
a
false
trail
in
seeking satisfaction. One prevalent error is that happiness
may be found by a direct pursuit. Nathaniel Hawthorne
wrote:
"Happiness in
this world, when
it comes, comes
incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us
a wild-goose chase, and
is never attained."
According to a proverb, "The eyes of a fool are in the
ends of the earth." Happiness
is never far from
us; nor
is there any need to take a journey in search of it. A man
discovered a map with most intricate directions for find-
ing a great treasure, and made a lifelong search, only to
find when his life was spent that the final routing led him
into his own back yard.
Happiness
is as close to us as our duty, the by-product
of duty performed. Happiness and duty are inseparably
linked. Duty not only results in happiness, but
it
is our
duty to be happy. We should repent of our gloom. The
admonition of Jesus is, "Be of good cheer."
Certain theological notions have created a general sus-
picion of happiness, with the idea that
it
is evil in
itself.
The Beatitudes of Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount
evidently
intend
that we
should
be
happy.
Happiness
ministers
to
health,
helps us
to do
better work,
creates
friendships, and affords evidence of our faith in God.
In
contrast, we have
the
wail
of
pessimism.
History
and
literature abound
in
lamentations over
the misery
of men. Solon was one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece,
but the
final conclusion of his wisdom was, "No mortal
man
is truly blessed; but all are wretched whom the sun
looks down upon." Simonides laments: "Few and evil are
the days of our lives; but everlasting is the sleep which we
must sleep beneath the earth."
Job sighed
in
the midst
of
his
misery, "Man
that
is
FOREWORD
9
born of a woman
is
of few
days, and
full
of
trouble."
The author of the book
of
Ecclesiastes looked about
and
declared:
"All was
vanity and
vexation
of
spirit,
and there was no profit under the sun."
Goethe,
in
his old
age,
said:
"I have ever been
con-
sidered one of Fortune's chief
favorites; nor can
I com-
plain of the course which my
life has
taken. Yet,
truly,
there
has been nothing but
toil and
care;
and
in my
seventy-fifth year
I may say
that
I have never had four
weeks of genuine pleasure."
According
to Voltaire men
are "tormented atoms
in
a bed
of mud, devoured by
death,
a mockery
of
fate.
This
world,
this
theater
of
pride
and
wrong,
swarms
with
sick
fools, who
talk
of
happiness."
Schopenhauer
sounded the pessimistic note, "Life
is a misfortune, and
none but the dead are happy."
A
psychologist
estimates
that one
fourth
of
the
peo-
ple have more misery than joy and that one out of every
seven
has
to
struggle
at
least
occasionally
against
the
impulse
to commit
suicide.
It
is my
earnest
desire
to
minimize
in some measure
the sum
of human
misery.
Free
use
has been made
of
the
ideas
of
a number
of
writers.
Originality may
be
defined
as
undetected
pla-
giarism. This
is
doubtless
a
plagiarism, and
I am
sure
the following lines are:
He writes best, who steals the most
Ideas both great and small;
For the great mind who wrote them first
From nature stole them all.
If this volume should add something to the sum
total
of human happiness,
I
will be
richly rewarded.
I
trust
that the very solemn reader will not be repelled by the
frequent light touches.
10
THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS
Outside the door at the cathedral at Chester, England,
is the prayer:
Give me a sense of humour, Lord,
Give me the grace to see a joke,
To get some pleasure out of life,
And pass
it on to other folk.
The bow
that
is
always
stretched
loses
its
elasticity.
We
have
the
incident
of
a woman who
got
nervous
prostration
because
at
her
church
they
always
sang,
"Awake, my
soul,
stretch every nerve."
A
scientist
after
discovering
that
cheerful
people
re-
sist disease better than glum ones remarked, "The surly
bird catches
the germ."
In
Part Two on "The
Foes
of Happiness"
chapters
could
have
been
added
on
"Physical
Ailments"
and
"An
Evil Temper." But
these two
factors
of unhappi-
ness
are
easily
obvious,
and
only
brief
references
are
made.
In
Part Three on "The
Conditions
of
Happiness,"
if space had allowed, we could have included
chapters
on "Conforming Our Wants
to Our Needs" and "Faith
in
the
Fatherly Love
of God."
Both
of
these
factors,
however, are recognized throughout the volume.
It will
be readily seen that no effort is made to have the chapters
of uniform length.
I am deeply indebted to Dr. Curtis B. Haley for reading
the manuscript and making valuable criticisms and sug-
gestions.
W. P. K.
CONTENTS
Part One
The Wrong Trail
I. Fame, Wealth, Pleasure, Power, Knowledge
.
.
15
Part Two
The Foes of Happiness
II. The Worry of Life
37
III. The Work of Life
56
IV. The Perplexed Mind
67
V. The Self-Centered Life
79
VI. The Dark Shadow of Fear
97
Part Three
The Conditions of Happiness
VII. Accepting
Ourselves
121
VIII. The Saving Sense of Humor
136
IX. Knowing How to Grow Old
153
X. Memory and Imagination
164
XL Happiness in the Inner Spirit
174
11
