confidence and rouses the flagging will with the determination to go on.

Laugh, and your troubles and disappointments will fall from you; frown, and go about with a gloomy, lowering face, and you will draw a host more to you.

During an acute financial panic a merchant whose shelves were groaning with unsold merchandise, and whose clerks were standing around gloomy and discouraged, in going about his store one day caught a glimpse of his own face in a long mirror, and was shocked at what he saw. "I was amazed to see how blue and gloomy I looked," he told a friend, "and I said to myself, 'I don't wonder business is bad in this store, I don't wonder people don't come here to buy. Everybody is in the dumps. The sight of all these gloomy, discouraged faces would drive customers away even in the most prosperous times.' Then I called all the clerks together and had a talk with them. I told them that the store needed bracing up, and cheering up, more than anything else; that I wanted a complete change in the expression of their faces; that we were losing business and our faces told the story to the world. I said that hereafter I would discharge any clerk who did not have a pleasant, cheerful expression. From that time on things changed very materially and business improved, for trade, even more in hard times than when conditions are normal, is a matter of attrac

tion. I found that we had all been so blue and discouraged, because of the wretched business conditions, that we had created an atmosphere of discouragement which had actually driven away busi

Did you ever realize how many friends and business patrons you may drive away through a habitually sour, gloomy expression and a repellent manner? Everybody is trying to get out of the darkness into the light, out of the cold into the warmth. Everybody is looking for brightness, trying to get away from shadows into the sunshine. They want to get into harmony and away from discord.

Cheerful people, who look on the bright side of the picture, and who are ever ready to snatch victory from defeat, are always popular; they are not only happy in themselves, but the cause of untold happiness to others.

"When Emerson's library was burning in Concord," says Louisa Alcott, "I went to him as he stood with the firelight on his strong, sweet face, and endeavored to express my sympathy for the loss of his most valued possessions, but he answered cheerily, 'Never mind, Louisa; see what a beautiful blaze they make! We will enjoy that now!' The lesson was one never forgotten, and in the varied losses that have come to me, I have learned to look for something beautiful and bright."

Emerson's smile was a perpetual benediction to all who knew him. Another great soul akin to Emerson's, with the same wonderful power of illuminating by the sunshine of his presence every scene in which he appeared, was Phillips Brooks. A Boston newspaper once printed this item: "It was dark and rainy yesterday and Newspaper Row felt the gloom. But Bishop Brooks passed through and the sun shone."

The sun always shone when Bishop Brooks passed along. He radiated sunshine as the sun radiates light and heat. I once lived in Boston and used to see him often. It was an inspiration to look upon his face. One instinctively felt that he was in constant touch with Omnipotence, always in tune with the great Source of the universe, the Giver of all good gifts, of all joy and gladness.

People seeing Phillips Brooks for the first time used to say that he gave the impression of being an ambassador of God, a messenger sent from Heaven to man to give him physical evidences of the existence of the Divinity. His church was the Mecca for thousands of strangers visiting Boston. Many Boston people moved to his section of the city so that they might permanently enjoy the uplift and inspiration of his benign presence. Phillips Brooks increased the value of every lot of land, of every home, of every institution in his neighborhood.

Who has not felt the uplift, the refreshment

that comes from the sight of a cheery, smiling face! I have in mind a sunny soul who sometimes drops in to see me when I am so busy that I do not know which way to turn. But I do not remember ever being so busy as to regret this man's call, for he brings with him a care-free air that is like healing balm, and wherever he goes he leaves sunshine behind him. He scatters his flowers as he goes along, for he knows he never will go over exactly the same road again.

People almost envy this man his wonderful poise and balance, and his sweet and sane philosophy of life which never takes into account position or money or any external advantage. Personal merit, character, is everything with him, no matter whether it is found in the rich man or the poor man. To him the character is divine wherever it is found. He is so in love with humanity that he gets a warm welcome wherever he goes. Doors which are barred to others fly open to him, simply because he is a radiator of joy. He is so enamored of life, of bare existence, that a stranger meeting him would think some great good fortune had just come to him, that he had just received some glad tidings of great joy.

There is an invitation waiting for this man wherever he goes just because he has the lovable, cheery nature which everybody admires.

It is human nature to love agreeable qualities, charming traits. We are all attracted by the things

that make us feel better, the things that give us pleasure. We like to have people call on us who leave a good taste in our mouths and abiding pleasant memories. We like men and women who bring sunshine into our lives, lighten our cares instead of loading us with their own, and make it easier for us to keep sweet ourselves.

There is no other force in nature which sets us so helpful and cheerful an example as the sun, which flings out its rays in every direction, flooding the world with light and heat and good cheer.

The sun has no prejudices, no hatreds, no animosities. It sends brightness and joy into the humblest home, just the same as into the king's palace. Discriminating against no one, no matter how filthy or ugly, or wicked, the great sun gives, without stint, health, beauty, and life to all the world. It sends the same quality of radiance and warmth into the filthy slums as into the mansions of the rich. It penetrates to the foulest places, develops the lily out of the filthiest mud and mire, calls forth the rose out of the blackest soil, and develops the best, the most beautiful in everything it touches.

A great-hearted, sunny, cheerful person is a symbol of the glorious, life-giving sun. His influence is similar. It brings light, cheer, and encouragement to the saddest hearts, sunshine to the darkest places.

There is a great curative, medicinal property in good cheer. We all get an uplift from it. It acts