Article February 5, 1916 Issue

Righteous Rejoicing

REV. JAMES J. ROME

No one can know, without having had the experience, what a joyful relief comes to those who through Christian Science treatment have been set free from physical ailments after they have searched in vain for healing through material methods. Very closely akin to this sense of joy is that expressed by the young student of Christian Science who has successfully applied his knowledge of the truth and has been enabled to bring relief to those in physical distress. It was no doubt joy of this nature that filled the hearts of the seventy disciples when they returned to Jesus from their healing mission and exclaimed, "Even the devils are subject unto us through thy name." One can well imagine their receiving with some surprise the gentle rebuke administered by the Master when he said, "In this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven."

In his rebuke Jesus was pointing out a danger, and the warnings given by him then are valuable to us now. What was the lesson intended? It was not the rejoicing which he rebuked, but the cause of rejoicing. Neither can we suppose that Jesus meant to minimize the importance of healing disease and casting out evils, since he had already pointed to these very effects as a proof of his divine authority. Why was their rejoicing at fault? Jesus taught very clearly that while physical harmony and material supply resulted from the better sense of the divine presence which he imparted, the purpose of his life-work was by no means to bring ease and gratification to material sense. Their rejoicing evidently indicated that they were attaching undue importance to the material, physical effects, and that this led to the obscuration of the spiritual facts which produced them.

It is a poor evidence of progress when one stops to admire the product of his work. If he has the proper breadth of conception, he will but regard his present accomplishment as an evidence of that greater achievement upon which his heart is fixed. Pride in accomplishment evidences a lack of maturity. The music pupil may practise his lesson in order to show how well he can play it, but the musician is reaching out far beyond his production to ideals that as yet he cannot outwardly express. So is it with the student who has reached beyond the first steps in Christian Science: he ceases to wonder at or find his joy in the mere physical healing, which he learns to regard as a matter of course, as the natural result of his higher understanding of what is far more important and substantial.

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