Cheerfulness
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.
The wise among the ancients unite in saying that a happy life, to which good health usually seems to be essential, is the product of virtue, and that virtue comes from righteous thinking. Let us consider an excerpt from the seventh book of Aristotle's work on "Politics." He says, "As to a happy life, whether it is to be found in pleasure or in virtue, or in both, certain it is that it belongs more frequently to those whose morals are most pure, and whose understandings are best cultivated, and who preserve moderation in the acquisition of external goods, than to those who possess a sufficiency of external good things, but are deficient in the rest." It need not be remarked that cheerfulness is a conspicuous part of a happy life, and it does one good to note the many occasions in which our Master commended it to those in need. To a man sick of the palsy he said, "Son, be of good cheer;" then he healed him. Again, toward the close of his earthly ministry, he said to his followers: "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." We also read that this was the divine message to Paul when he was to mortal sense in a sore strait, "Be of good cheer, Paul."
It should be our constant effort to make cheerfulness an abiding angel of our thought. The more we seek and cultivate its smiling presence, the oftener will it visit us and the longer will it remain. Each hour of its companionship should give us greater courage, fortitude, compassion for others, more unwavering faith in divine Love; and the more of these we possess, the more permanent and perennial become the hymns of cheerfulness which sing in our hearts to gladden all our days. Whether we smile in the sunshine or seem to sorrow in the shadows, whether worldly fortunes seem to prosper or to darken and decay, whether our friendships remain with us to gladden our life or vanish, still we may find cheerfulness, along with gratitude, serenity, patience, humility, trust,—yes, even joy,—in the abiding assurance that the protecting arms of everlasting Love are beneath us and about us, always and everywhere!
In striving to cultivate cheerfulness as a guest in our consciousness, we must not forget that we need to be worthy of its smiling presence, for cheerfulness seeks congenial and worthy companionship. Its energizing and sustaining influences are not for the sordid and selfish mortal who lives for himself only; the gross and sensual mortal who sacrifices himself and others in the indulgence of bodily appetites; the mortal of low ideals, standards of thinking and conduct, of groveling aspirations and debased incentives; the mortal of inordinate greed, ambition, pride, and vanity, who succeeds at the expense of others; or the mortal who is content that others shall suffer and starve that he may wax fat and ride among his victims in arrogance and disdainful ostentation, and whose career is a miserable travesty on true manhood. Such men may never win the cheerfulness that is worth while and blesses its possessor.
Cheerfulness is the reward of those who practise high and virtuous thinking and living, and it cannot be bought or bargained for unworthily. It is not the product of ease or pleasure, or of the pride begotten of power, place, or wealth; it is the offspring of the consciousness of duties faithfully done, of abnegation of self for the good of others, of high and pure ideals, aspirations, and endeavors. Indeed, the surest way to abiding and supreme good cheer is heroic self-sacrifice in loyalty to a high ideal. The world may not understand, friends may doubt, adversity may come, even dungeons and tortures and physical death may threaten; but there are patience and courage for the lesser and greater troubles, humiliations, and sorrows, and withal the consciousness that one's self is worthy of the divine kinship, that the supreme intelligence beholds and comprehends.
History proves that the martyrs in every cause have ever been more cheerful and truly victorious than those who wickedly oppress and persecute them. The right kind of music, of environment, and also of reading, is helpful to the habit of cheerfulness, just as the wrong kind impedes it. Especially should we seek the cheer which comes from a recognition of the ever-presence of our loving Father-Mother God.
Copyright, 1916, by The Christian Science Publishing Society
