I can see how the message might have looked suspicious. I'm sorry about that.
It is legitimate, though. What happened is that my dad had this book for many years. I remember doing a study on that, and it was a blessing. The book wasn't all about happiness, but it had this lesson. I remember this one point: Happiness comes from what you BELIEVE. So, anyway, I was going through my dad's book, and I only found this page of the whole book. As it probably came from the Sword of the Lord or some other fundamentalist source, I thought I would try and see if anyone recognized it here. I'll post the text here:
... About HAPPINESS
Whether we make a hair-line distinction between happines
and joy or not we all understand that we refer to
the greatly desired state of mind and life in which one is
supremely supported by something which sustains in the
midst of adversity and sorrow. It may be called happiness,
joy, or peace, but it refers to one and the same thing.
It is an easy thing to define happiness but another matter
to find it. Definitions are such unsatisfactory thingsI
Even the Bibfe does not give us a definition as such.
The Bible says that happiness is not found by seeking
it. It is a by-product received by possessing something else.
It is like health. You cannot get health by seeking some mystical
quality of physical well-being. Health is the byproduct
of the laws of the body and envfronment. Full
those laws and health will be the result.
Both the Old and New Testament declare that happiness
is a result of knowledge-the knowledge of a Person.
In the Psalms-knowing God. "Happy is that people
whose God is the Lord."
In John-knowing Christ. "Peace I leave with you, my
peace I give unto you."
I. HAPPINESS IS A PERSON, NOT IN A POSSESSION.
A person cannot pile up a fortune and say, "This is
life." A person cannot acquire property and say, "This is
life." A person cannot indulge in pleasure anD say, "This
is life." A person cannot accumulate wisdom and say,
"This is life." A person cannot put his body on the Scale to
determine body weight and say, "This is life." Life does not
consist of that which makes you rich, affiuent, carefree, or
wise. It consists of the intangible things-the things you
cannot count or measure or weigh or see. It consits of something
within, not without. It is something which cannot
be kept or lost by exterior circumstances, but rather by an
inner standard. And all of this means a relation to God.
"The man who is trusting God does not need to look into
his pocketbook to see whether he ought to be happy.''
It has been said that "a man may lose all he has, have
nothing to live on, and yet have a lot to live for ." Let us
dare to believe that. No matter where we are, who we are
or how we are, we have a lot to live for if we will live for
the right things and live with God. It is a foregone conclusion
that no one can live for the best until he has the best
and we have not even begun the better things, much less
the best things, until we have a walking and a working
acquaintance with God.
The Bible says that "A man 's life consisteth not in the
abundance of the things which he possesseth" (Luke 12:15).
Life does not consist of wealth, for we know of wealthy
people who are not happy people.
It does not consist of health, for we know of healthy people
who are not happy.
You will notice that the Bible says, "Life" or happiness
does not consist in the abundance of things. It is equally
true that unhappiness does not consist in the absence of
things.
It says also in connection with these things that happiness
has a relation to two things: first, to the soul; and
second, to God. This is taught out of the experience of the
man of whom this scripture speaks, who built barns and
accumulated possessions, but neglected God and starved
his soul. God said, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall
be required of thee."
To summarize what the Bible says about happiness we
may give it in six statements. In connection with these six
statements keep this scripture in mind- Romans 14: 19. "Follow
after those things which make for peace." It does not
say that we should follow after peace but "the things which
make for p eace."
II. HAPPINESS CONSISTS:
I. Of What We Believe.
This is not just a creed, for creeds may be only collections
of words. It is faith in God, faith in God as a person...
