Editorial October 10, 1914 Issue

Peace and Joy

John B. Willis

Where shall the heart find quietness and peace, a satisfying sense of repose, in the midst of the seemingly endless turmoil of human life—how gain that unvarying buoyancy of spirit which will enable one to surmount such a flood of trial and tragedy as that which is sweeping over many of earth's fairest fields today? To this question world-philosophies can make no satisfying answer. In the presence of such an engulfing catastrophe the asserted worth of mortal possessions—wealth, position, honors, culture—disappears, and all men are brought to a common level of recognized weakness and need. When the ministry of accustomed pleasure fails, when the dearest family ties are ruthlessly sundered, when even the simple joys of the fields and the sky have vanished, and not a song is heard in all the land,—in such an hour, how shall the heart escape the reefs of anguish and despair unless it is consciously anchored in the haven of Truth and Love?

Though bruised and bleeding from the "many stripes" which had been laid upon them, and painfully manacled in the noisome darkness of an "inner prison," at midnight the songs of Paul and Silas were heard in all the corridors of their dismal dungeon! Manifestly they had found the source and explanation of that peace and joy which passeth understanding, for they were saved "to the uttermost," even in the hour of evil's seeming triumph. This true spiritual ground of rejoicing has been regained in Christian Science, to the unspeakable comfort of those that were sorely troubled and sorrowing, and its secret is revealed in Mrs. Eddy's counsel that we are "to know no other reality—to have no other consciousness of life—than good, God and His reflection" (Science and Health, p. 242). Think what such a realization would signify to the frightened and grieving millions at the present hour!

The vast intensity of the world-tragedy now being enacted, is so appalling as to tempt one to think that every hope of human redemption must be given up, and yet, as we have come to know in Science, it does not and can not destroy or even disturb any least element of true being. God, and His every creation or idea, remains untouched, and in all the realm of Spirit there abides the perfect peace that reigned "when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Let one realize this inspiring truth in Christian Science, and he has become superior to every circumstance and event.

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