So let us pause and take an account of stock and ascertain whether we are thinking ourselves up or down, whether we are building truthfully or falsely, whether we are going forward or backward,
If we're thoughtful, just this minute, In whate'er we say or do; If we put a purpose in it That is honest, through and through, We shall gladden life and give it Grace to make it all sublime; For, though life is long, we live it Just this minute at a time.
Just this minute we are going Toward the right or toward the wrong, Just this minute we are sowing Seeds of sorrow or of song. Just this minute we are thinking On the ways that lead to God, Or in idle dreams are sinking To the level of the clod.
Yesterday is gone, to-morrow Never comes within our grasp; Just this minute's joy or sorrow, That is all our hands may clasp. Just this minute! Let us take it As a pearl of precious price, And with high endeavor make it Fit to shine in paradise.
One who finds joy in the doing of things can work more easily and steadily than one who works unwillingly and unhappily. Good nature is a lubricant for all the wheels of life. It changes the leaden feet of duty into the airy wings of opportunity, it not only brings happiness but that almost necessary adjunct of happiness,--health.
"In the maintenance of health and the cure of disease," says Dr. A. J. Sanderson, "cheerfulness is a most important factor. Its power to do good like a medicine is not an artificial stimulation of the tissues, to be followed by reaction and greater waste, as is the case with many drugs; but the effect of cheerfulness is an actual life-giving influence through a normal channel the results of which reach every part of the system. It brightens the eye, makes ruddy the countenance, brings elasticity to the step, and promotes all the inner forces by which life is sustained. The blood circulates more freely, the oxygen comes to its home in the tissues, health is promoted, and disease is banished."
When we note how generally the members of the medical profession ascribe to cheerfulness the very highest of health-giving powers, we are led to think that the wise words quoted above possess a foundation of scientific fact. "Faith, hope and love," says Charles G. Ames, "are purifiers of the blood. They have a peptic quality. They open and enlarge all the channels of bodily vitality. As was learned long ago, 'A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.' And the self-control which keeps reason on the throne and makes passion serve is the best of all domestic physicians."