Editorial August 17, 1912 Issue

ENDURING HAPPINESS

Archibald McLellan

Much has been said about the unassumed air of happiness and prosperity which is distinctive of Christian Scientists, and while it is true that jocose critics have jeered at what they have been pleased to term "smug complacency," it is also true that these critics are in such a minority that their sayings are of little consequence. All that one need do who really desires to find the reason for this outward show of peace, is to listen to the testimonies given at the Wednesday evening meetings in the Christian Science churches throughout the world, or read those published in our periodicals. From these he will learn that in every case the healing work which is a necessary part of Christian Science, even as it was a necessary part of Jesus' ministry, has resulted in manifold blessings not only to the person healed, but also to all those in close association with him. Why should not the members of a family, one of whom had been for years a hopeless invalid, rejoice in the healing of this loved one? Why should they not rejoice in the restoration to usefulness of the breadwinner of the family, who perhaps through something worse than sickness had dragged them down to poverty and misery? And above all, why should they not be happy in that understanding of God which enables them to help others as they themselves have been helped?

As to the seeming prosperity of Christian Scientists, the reasons for it are obvious. Those who advocate the establishment of governmental agencies which they endeavor to assure the public will check the waste of human efficiency through sickness, assert that this waste runs into hundreds of millions of dollars each year in the United States alone. In every Christian Science family this waste has been either eliminated or curtailed, and this without governmental paternalism and through the method employed by Christ Jesus in his ministry. And what shall be said of another great waste which has been cut off by Christian Science in many families! Who does not know of families in which the "drink bill" would comfortably clothe the whole family, and who does not know of families to whom this same evil has brought abject poverty, sickness, and death! Would not any sociologist agree with the statement that the elimination of the liquor habit would largely do away with poverty; that it would make prosperous on the same income those who are now in poverty through indulgence in this habit? There are those, too, who have been delivered from the blighting bondage of fear, who have gained the freedom which Paul voiced in his exultant declaration, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." The frank testimony of thousands of people is that Christian Science has brought about these reforms in their affairs. Why, then, should they not express in their irradiated faces and in their regenerated lives the thankfulness which they feel?

Happiness is an inalienable right of mankind, and he who has it not should rouse himself to secure its possession; but he who would know true happiness must seek it aright. Christian Scientists rejoice that through Mrs. Eddy's teachings they have learned its inexhaustible source, that "Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind" (Science and Health, p. 60), and that enduring happiness cannot be found elsewhere. They rejoice and are glad that for them the darkness of doubt and despair, of sin and suffering, has fled before the light of divine Truth and Love; that upon them, as was foretold of old, "hath the light shined."

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