Article January 1, 1916 Issue

Cheerfulness

HON. CLARENCE A. BUSKIRK

Do Christian Science practitioners and patients sufficiently recognize the value of cheerfulness in overcoming sickness and other discordant conditions? or do they sometimes neglect to encourage that good cheer which is such an important aid in the application of the divine Truth-cure for the world's redemption? In Proverbs we read, "A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken." In harmony with this statement, Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 395) that "an ill-tempered, complaining, or deceitful person should not be a nurse. The nurse should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of faith,—receptive to Truth and Love."

In the plastic arts, all the conditions which affect the plasticity of what is to be shaped and altered are studied constantly. In the divine Truth-cure, with its unwavering faith in the Supreme Being and its true prayer thereto as energizing aids, cheerfulness renders the patient more receptive, while despondency or discouragement or hopelessness renders him more difficult to restore to a normal state of harmonious activity of mind and body. Those who make a study of mankind, including many of the materialistic physicians, have long since observed the great importance of "good cheer;" but unfortunately, when ignorant of the understanding found in Christian Science, they have failed to use good logic in drawing the right lessons therefrom. On page 149 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says: "A physician of the old school remarked with great gravity: 'We know that mind affects the body somewhat, and advise our patients to be hopeful and cheerful and to take as little medicine as possible; but mind can never cure organic difficulties.' The logic is lame, and facts contradict it."

What kind of a Supreme Being can a man be thinking about, and what sort of logic is he making use of, when he argues in one breath that God has arranged things so that evil thinking can make us sick, and even stop the pulsations of the heart, and who then declares in the next breath that God has also so arranged things that righteous and good thinking cannot produce the opposite effects of health and life? Did not Solomon find it to be true that as a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he"? Did not Paul find it to be true that "to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace"? This statement of the apostle, as understood in Christian Science, is of the deepest significance, and is capable of the widest application.

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