Editorial December 28, 1907 Issue

GENUINE GOOD CHEER

John B. Willis

It is no less pleasant to give than to receive the cheery greeting, "A Happy New Year!" The habit contributes to that commerce of kindness in which all may have part, and from which all may receive an appreciable profit over and above the satisfaction of smiling upon others. If we find ourselves sincerely wishing for the happiness, the good of all men, we have taken one distinct step toward bringing that happiness about. The next and more significant step is to be happy ourselves, to have that wholesome, all-the-year-round rejoicing which is in keeping with our asserted faith, and which makes one's companionship a coveted comfort to all with whom he has to do, especially the discouraged and despairing. The New Year word of happy hope is good, but better far that unspoken cheeriness which perennially reveals our courage, our confidence, our self-command, our fearlessness, and our inner joy.

History tells us of few men who had more frequent or more serious occasions for dejection than did St. Paul, and yet he was, and will ever remain, the bearer of comfort and good cheer to all who hear his words. His letters overflow with glad assurance and exultation, and his climax is invariably an anthem of rejoicing. He learned, as must we, to "rejoice in the Lord alway." This is the secret of all genuine gladness and good nature.

In bettered health, in bettered lives, in a more inspiring sense of God and of man, in quickened and ennobled aspirations, and in a demonstrable knowledge of Truth, Christian Scientists have multiplied reasons for that optimism which is so often reported of them by their fellow-travelers. Nevertheless, in the present average of their experience, registered achievement is not sufficiently complete and unvarying to furnish themes for unfailing song. They need to supplement the gains of to-day with the assured overcomings of to-morrow if they would manifest and maintain the spirit of "the Great Apostle," and this assurance becomes theirs only as they apprehend the unfailing certainty of Life, the imperishability of Truth, the infinite embrace of Love.

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