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50 BYWAYS TO BLESSEDNESS

Carpeting all the way with joy! There throng
Swiftest and sweetest hours!”

Tribulation lasts only so long as there remains some chaff of self which needs to be removed.
The tribulum, or threshing-machine, ceases to work when all the grain is separated from chaff; and
when the last impurities are blown away from the soul, tribulation has completed its work, and
there is no more need for it; then abiding joy is realised.
All the saints and prophets and saviors of the race have proclaimed with rejoicing the “Gospel”
or the “Good News.” All men know what Good News is — An impending calamity avoided, a
disease cured, friends arrived or returned in safety, difficulties overcome, success in some
enterprise assured — but what is the “Good News” of the saintly ones? This: that there is peace for
the troubled, healing for the afflicted, gladness for the grief-stricken, victory for the sinful, a
homecoming for the wanderer, and joy for the sorrowing and broken-hearted. Not that these
beautiful realities shall be in some future world, but they are here and now, that they are known
and realised and enjoyed; and are, therefore, proclaimed that all may accept them who will break
the galling bonds of self and rise into the glorious liberty of unselfish love.
Seek the highest Good, and as you find it, as you practise it and realise it, you will taste the
deepest, sweetest joy. As you succeed in forgetting your own selfish desires in your thoughtfulness
for others, in your care for others, in your service for others, just so far and no further will you find
and realise the abiding joy in life.
Inside the gateway of unselfishness lies the elysium of Abiding Joy, and whosoever will may
enter in, whosoever doubts let him come and see.
And knowing this — that selfishness leads to misery, unselfishness to joy, not merely for one’s
self alone — for if this were all how unworthy could be our endeavours! — but for the whole
world and because all with whom we live and come in contact will be the happier and truer for our
unselfishness; because Humanity is one, and the joy of one is the joy of all — knowing this let us
scatter flowers and not thorns in the common ways of life — yea, even in the highway of our
enemies let us scatter the blossoms of unselfish love — so shall the pressure in their footprints fill
the air with the perfume of holiness and gladden the world with the aroma of joy.