A Merry Heart Both Meat and Medicine

“A MERRY heart doeth good like medicine.” In the Revised Version it reads: “A merry heart is a good medicine.” In a previous verse of this Book of Divine Proverbs, we read that ‘’He that is of merry heart hath a continual feast.” So that the same thing is recommended to us both as meat and medicine.

The word “merry” here is not the synonym of reckless jollity; it is not the mere effervescence of animal spirits, or the product of sensual stimulants. It is the same word which Paul used when he told his temptest-tossed shipmates in the Adriatic to “Be of good cheer.” There is a broad difference in the Bible between joy and jollity; the one often comes from above, and the other quite too often from beneath. The 25 cheerfulness which God’s Word commends is not dependent on outward conditions or circumstances; for some of the most miserable people in our land may be eating their sumptuous dinner to-day off silver and porcelain in splendid mansions. It is not where we are, but what we are that determines our real happiness. Christian cheerfulness is that sunshiny, happy frame of mind which comes from health of heart; it is the invariable symptom of heart-health.

Such a temper of mind has a most potent influence upon the bodily health. Many a lean dyspeptic who has no appetite for his food, and no refreshing rest in his sleep, is simply dying of worry and peevishness. The acrid humors of the mind have struck through and diseased the digestive organs. The medicine he needs is not from the physician or the pharmacy. A good dose of Divine grace, with a few grains of gratitude for God’s mercies, and a frequent bracing walk of benevolence in helping other people, will do more to quicken his appetite and put healthy blood into his weazened frame than 36 all the drugs of the apothecary. Not only is a merry heart a wonderful tonic to the body; it is a clarifier and invigorator of the mind. The mental machinery will work longer and far more smoothly when the oil of cheerfulness lubricates the wheels.

It is worthy of note that many of the giants in the Christian Church have been men of exuberant cheerfulness. Stout old Martin Luther had in him a huge capacity for laughter; he came home from his stormy public conflicts to make merry with his household around his Christmas tree, and to enjoy music and song with his wife Katherina. Lyman Beecher was as indigenous an American product as the hickory or the buckeye tree; like Abraham Lincoln he tasted of the soil. His heart-health was of the most robust character. With work enough for five men on his shoulders, he was ready to go off and spend a whole day with his boys gathering chestnuts — filling the forest with his laughter and glee. At the close of some of his most powerful revival services he came home to prepare for 2^7 a wholesome night’s slumber by a romp with his children, or a few lively airs on his violin. The same sunny-hearted cheerfulness has been the characteristic of Spurgeon, and Phillips Brooks and Newman Hall, and Guthrie, and many other masters in Israel — the swing of whose minds, like the swing of a great wave at sea, threw off jets from its foaming crest.

Let me ask the men of business who read these lines, “how many of you manage to lubricate the wearing machinery of life with this oil of cheerful spirit? How many of you come home from the exacting care and tear of your daily calling to make your fireside bright and your household happy? I fear that we who profess a religion of joy and hope are too often so chafed by the frictions, or worried by the cares of life, that we bring but little of the “merry heart” into our homes. I have known some specimens of piety that shone in the prayer-meeting, but smoked sadly at the firesidCi If you Christian fathers and mothers do not make your homes attractive, and winsome, and cheerful, your children will seek other places of attraction that may be by-roads to perdition! A lively dinner once in a twelvemonth is all very well; but far better is the cheerful heart that is a “continual feast” all the year round. How shall this temper of mind that is both meat and medicine, be secured and maintained? A few simple prescriptions may not be amiss. In the first place, look at your mercies with both eyes, but at your trouble with only one eye. Look at your mercies and your privileges often, and at troubles when you cannot help it. If adversities press heavily, draw all the honey you can out of the hard rock, and oil out of the flinty rock. Saadi, the Persian poet, tells us that he never complained of povery but once, and that was when he had no money to buy shoes; but meeting a man who had no feet, he became contented to go barefooted. If a heathen could keep cheerful by his philosophy, why should a Christian believer ever complain who is the heir through Christ to a magnificent eternal inheritance?

Strive to reach Paul’s secret: “In whatsoever state I am, I will be content.” In these days of extravagance keep down the accursed spirit of grasping. By all means live within your means. You do not need all the coal to heat your little oven. Most of my readers may have as large possessions now as they can give good account of at the Day of Judgment. Godliness with contentment is great wealth. A millionaire once said to me, “I never got any real happiness out of my money until I began to do good with it.” Be useful if you want to be cheerful. Always be lighting somebody’s torch, and that will shed its lightness on your own pathway, too.

Finally, make a loving God your trustee, and commit your soul to his keeping. Take short views. If you have enough to meet your legitimate wants, and something over for Christ’s treasury, don’t torment yourself with the fear that your cruse of oil will give out. If your children cluster around your board to-day, enjoy the music of their voices without racking your hearts with the 40 dread that one may be carried off by the scarlet fever, or another may come to disaster. Faith carries present loads, meets present dangers, feeds on present promises, and commits the future to a loving Heavenly Father. Again I say, take short views. Do not attempt to climb the high wall till you get to it — or fight the battle till it opens — or shed tears over sorrow that may never come. Be careful lest you lose the joys that you have by the sinful fear that God may have trials awaiting you. He promises graces sufficient for to-day — but not one ounce of strength for to-morrow. You cannot create the morning star; but you can put your soul where Jesus Christ is shining. Each Sabbath is a fitting time to inventory your mercies and blessings. Set all your family to the pitch of the 103d Psalm; and hang on the wall over your dinner these mottoes: “A merry heart is a good medicine” and “He that is of a cheerful heart hath a continual feast.”