A devotional writer of the present day, in answer to the question, How are we to overcome temptations?
says: "Cheerfulness is the first thing, cheerfulness is the second, and cheerfulness is the third." It furnishes the best soil for the growth 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.