Article December 13, 1913 Issue

Reason for Rejoicing

ERNEST C. MOSES

In the tenth chapter of St. Luke it is related that Jesus appointed seventy students to go among the various communities of Judaea to preach the gospel of Christianity, and to give practical evidence of its power by healing the sick wherever they should find the people receptive of the Christhealing. These students departed on their mission of good will, health, and holiness, and shortly thereafter they returned to the Master in a very happy mood, saying, "Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name." The record by Luke indicates that these students were so elated over the destruction of sinful and sickly conditions among the people, that Jesus recognized in their attitude of thought a grave error, and promptly rebuked it. After assuring them that through the spiritual idea of God which he presented they had dominion over all the alleged "power of the enemy," and that nothing should by any means harm them, the Master said, "Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." This we might understand to mean that they were to rejoice not because the beliefs of sin and sickness were subject to those instructed in the truth, but to be happy because they knew and were abiding in the conscious power of Truth.

The same reason for rejoicing should be recognized today by all students of Christian Science who find that a willingness to be governed by the divine Principle of this Science enables them to obey the command of the Founder of Christianity to "heal the sick" as well as to preach the salvation of God in overcoming sin. We may indeed be grateful for the destruction of every sickly and sinful thought through the application of the divine Science which Jesus expounded and illustrated in his life-work; but our rejoicing must find its sure basis in a conscious realization that our true individuality or character is in God, Spirit.

The obligation resting on Christians to rejoice in the consciousness of heaven within their thoughts, is based on this positive command of the Master to rejoice in their understanding of reality rather than in the mere overcoming of that which is unreal. Unreality does not contain or present anything in which to rejoice, since there is nothing in its destruction, as such, to make us glad; for rejoicing is a spiritual quality, proceeding from divine Love, the one and only cause and creator. There can be no true rejoicing in any man's heart, unless he knows God through His eternal Christ, the consciousness of Truth which every man possesses, albeit many seem asleep to this priceless inheritance. Only Truth can make us happy; certainly error can offer us no basis whatever for rejoicing.

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