ENJOYMENT

Annie M. Knott

It is scarcely possible to lay too much emphasis upon the fact that joy is one of the essentials of our being, that it is to our mentality what sunshine is to fruit and flower. Many of us were taught that the "chief end" of man is to glorify God and "to enjoy Him forever," but in most cases it was believed that the enjoyment must be deferred until after death. In Christian Science, however, we have come to see that as we glorify God,—in other words, reflect the divine nature,—we enjoy Him here and now. We also learn that we glorify God by enjoying Him, and this includes the enjoyment of all the good He confers, for as Mrs. Eddy says, "God is not separate from the wisdom He bestows" (Science and Health, p. 6), neither can He be separate from the good He bestows. Unfortunately, mortals have so long entertained a false sense of happiness that its pursuit has come to be regarded as always disappointing, if not actually wrong. It was Burns who said,—

Pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed;
Or like the snow—falls in the river,
A moment white—then melts forever ...
Or like the rainbow's lovely form
Evanishing amid the storm.

Not so the Hebrew poet, whose words are, "In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."

Coming to the good which all may legitimately seek, we find health. To "enjoy good health" is a common phrase, but it has a profound meaning. If health is believed to be a material possession, it may vanish in an hour because of the fluctuations of material sense. To enjoy permanent good health we must know where it is to be found and how retained. We must realize constantly what it means to be "in thy presence," and to reach out for "fulness of joy." In Christian Science the possession of good health means the awakening in us of spiritual faculties which reveal the goodness and beauty of the kingdom of God. This means vastly more than an improvement in physical sight. It means the fulfilment of the Beatitude, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God,"—see good and only good as the reality at all times, and this seeing is what constitutes true enjoyment.

What we need is to have our eyes opened; then we shall see, as did Hagar, wells of water to supply our thirst, or chariots and horsemen to defend us from our foes. A mother who had accepted Christian Science through the healing of her child was coming slowly to see "the things that God hath prepared." She had long been looking at the dark things that God had never prepared, and had believed them real; but health had been restored, and with its enjoyment came the spiritual faculty which means an ever-enlarging sense of goodness and beauty. One morning when the clouds seemed heavy, her child of two years slipped from his cot and ran out into the yard, where the early dandelions were bravely telling of springtime. The child gathered a bunch and brought them to the mother, and never before had any flowers seemed so beautiful as those miniature suns, for they brought their message, and it was more than hope—it was joy. They reminded her that, like the lilies, we need neither toil nor spin in materiality to avail ourselves of the divine bounty, but that we must see.

The pearly gates of the heavenly city stand each one of them for opportunity to enter into the joy of our Lord, but we can never take within the sacred portals anything "that defileth, ... or maketh a lie," or anything that denies the truth, for this would be a killjoy. We must first see the gates, then accept the invitation, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

Annie M. Knott.

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GOD FOR THE RIGHT

September 12, 1908

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