Article September 19, 1914 Issue

Cheerfulness

CLAUDE L. DE LONG

We often hear it remarked by those attending a Christian Science church for the first time, "Your congregation is certainly composed of wonderful people; they all seem to be so happy and contented." This remark should of course be true of all Christian churches, but cheerfulness certainly does pervade the atmosphere of Christian Science and is reflected in the face of its every true representative to a degree that is remarked by the stranger. Surely, he thinks, these people have found something in their study which accounts for this conspicuous attitude of contentment.

When one considers what Christian Science has done for its followers, he is not surprised at this expression of cheerfulness. Many of them have been lifted from bondage to sickness and sin, from fear, from the depths of despair, where they even questioned whether there could be a God who is Love, since seemingly, through no fault of their own, they were permitted to suffer so. When awakened in the glorious light of Truth to the knowledge that they are not subject to any law of sin and death, because of the "great fact that God lovingly governs all, never punishing aught but sin" (Science and Health, p. 412), they may well rejoice.

Christian Scientists are cheerful because they are learning what God truly is; because they are finding their true relation to God; because they are learning that through the knowledge of what God is and of man's relation to Him, they are able to prove by actual demonstration that the truth Christ Jesus taught is just as active today in overcoming sin and all manner of discord, as when its power was made manifest in his healing works. Christian Scientists are cheerful because the Scriptures are being revealed to them in a manner so plain that all may understand; because in a measure they are learning how to love their neighbor as themselves, and because they have been enabled to gain some glorious glimpses of the saving truth given to this age through the earnest effort and lifelong labor of their beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, in her text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."

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