Editorial September 1, 1956 Issue

A RELIGION OF JOY

Harold Molter

Christian Science is a religion of joy. Health, peace, success, and joy are the rewards of all who practice this Science faithfully. The joy inspired by Christian Science is not the momentary and fleeting surge of emotion. It is the expression of one's deep conviction that man is inseparable from God, Spirit—the source of all good.

Christians in general regard Jesus as "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," as Isaiah prophesied (Isa. 53:3). However, the Way-shower never indicated that he was "a man of sorrows." Toward the close of his career, he told his disciples that if they accepted his teachings and obeyed them, they would experience joy. He said to them (John 15:11), "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full."

It is a fact that Jesus suffered for the sins of others and had to meet the world's hatred of his spirituality. But through it all he was sustained by the Christ, his true manhood, which was never bound by sorrow or suffering. Mrs. Eddy says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 84), "The 'man of sorrows' knew that the man of joys, his spiritual self, or Christ, was the Son of God; and that the mortal mind, not the immortal Mind, suffered."

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