Gold Nugget 173 - In Search of Happiness (The Loss of Self)
There are men who imagine that by teaching children the arts of reading, writing, ciphering, and the rudiments of science they will improve the morality of the nation. When you remember that the moral character grows out of the heart and not out of the brain, out of the likings and dislikings, not out of the ideas or intelligence, all this seems as absurd as the attempt to make horse run on rocks. Secular knowledge cannot change the heart, cannot alter a man’s likes or dislikes. It may strengthen them, but not alter them. Dishonesty, uneducated, may commit petty thefts; but educated, it will legally swindle a nation. Knowledge, alas! is all in vain. …
All mankind are in search of happiness. … The great bulk seek happiness from without, from what they can see, and taste, and hear, and handle. They look for happiness in the titillation of the nerves and the gratification of the senses. Now, were man nothing but body, this would do. This does for the brute and the bird. But man is spirit; and matter in no form or combination can satisfy spirit.
A man’s life, or happiness, consisteth not in the abundance of material things. True happiness springs from within, not from without; arises from holy loves, hopes, aspirations, and aims. In one word, love is the well of water that springs up unto everlasting life. …
There are men in all Churches who give themselves to saving souls, as they say. Salvation is the burden of all their thought and talk. But how do they endeavour to accomplish their object? By everlasting appeals to the selfish fears and hopes of men. … But can this save the soul? Impossible. … Salvation consists in the extinction of all that is selfish in human nature, and in the generating, fostering, and perfecting disinterested, self-oblivious love. … The man who tries to save souls by constant appeals to the selfishness of human nature acts more absurdly than he who attempts to gallop horses upon the sharp peaks of rugged rocks.
The Pulpit Commentary, Amos p. 132-133, Amos 6:12, (D. Thomas)
Gold Nugget 173
In Search of Happiness (The Loss of Self)
