Rowth of goodness and virtue. It gives brightness of heart and
elasticity of spirit. It is the companion of charity, the nurse of
patience the mother of wisdom. It is also the best of moral and mental
tonics. "The best cordial of all," said Dr. Marshall Hall to one of his
patients, "is cheerfulness." And Solomon has said that "a merry heart
doeth good like a medicine." When Luther was once applied to for a
remedy against melancholy, his advice was: "Gaiety and courage--innocent
gaiety, and rational honourable courage--are the best medicine for young
men, and for old men, too; for all men against sad thoughts." [172] Next
to music, if not before it, Luther loved children and flowers. The great
gnarled man had a heart as tender as a woman's. Cheerfulness is also an
excellent wearing quality. It has been called the bright weather of the
heart. It gives harmony of soul, and is a perpetual song without words.
It is tantamount to repose. It enables nature to recruit its strength;
whereas worry and discontent debilitate it, involving constant
wear-and-tear
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