Editorial May 23, 1908 Issue

JOY VS. SORROW

Annie M. Knott

Among the many comforting statements of our textbook, one is remarkable for its ring of assurance, "Joy cannot be turned into sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy" (Science and Health, p. 304). Long before the coming of Christ Jesus the prophet Isaiah wrote that the Messiah would give "the oil of joy for mourning," and when the Master made the first public announcement of his mission he read the prophecy quoted, and said, as he closed the book, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." With strange inconsistency, however, many of his professed followers, those who have most needed comfort, have not taken this promise of joy, and many kindred promises found in the Bible, but they have instead pointed mournfully to the words in the eleventh chapter of John,—"Jesus wept,"—as if this statement proved his submission to sorrow and death.

The words "Jesus wept," when studied in the light of Christian Science, take on a far different meaning from that which lies on the surface. As we read the whole story we find that Jesus was obliged to leave Judea, where his mightiest works had been performed, because the officers of the law, at the instigation of the hierarchy, were constantly seeking to take him; but it is said that he "escaped out of their hand" and went away beyond Jordan. In the mean time Lazarus, his devoted follower, had been stricken down, and the sisters, Martha and Mary, sent word to the Master, undoubtedly expecting his aid. The story becomes very pathetic when we remember that they dared not ask Jesus to come to them, as this would mean his arrest by his cruel enemies; they could only say, "He whom thou lovest is sick." When Jesus proposed to go to Lazarus, his disciples reminded him that the Jews had been seeking to stone him, and possibly they feared that if they went back to Judea they would share their Master's fate.

But at length, after a long day's journey, they reached Bethany, and were told that Lazarus "had lain in the grave four days." There can be no question as to the Master's purpose at this hour. He was ready to prove again the power of the truth he had declared, and so he said to Martha, who had come out to meet him, "Thy brother shall rise again." Martha responded, "I know that he shall rise again . . . at the last day," as if that were small comfort in her hour of sorrow. Then the Master went on to make the declarations of vital truth which to-day in Christian Science are rousing those dead in material belief to a recognition of Life as God. He said, "I [Christ, Truth] am the resurrection, and the life: . . . whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die," and he demanded Martha's assent to this proposition.

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