Editorial September 22, 1917 Issue

"Pleasures and palaces"

William P. McKenzie

Perhaps the author of Home, Sweet Home" may not himself have roamed among palaces; but he did try out material pleasures, only to find with the Preacher that "all is vanity,"—that after all his searching abroad for pleasure, it was to be found in the simple joys of home. On page 390 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says, "Truth will at length compel us all to exchange the pleasures and pains of sense for the joys of Soul."

One wonders if the pleasure seeker's longing desire does not always, though it may be unconsciously, reach out in the direction of something which will satisfy, something which is nondeceptive and real? Christian Science answers this question by showing that there can be a transformation whereby the longing of the human heart may be appeased, and how that "catalogue of disappointments" which human life is said to be by the disappointed, may be displaced by plans and experiences wherein good develops according to the predestination of Love.

For some persons life would seem to be organized for pleasure. It is pleasure they pursue from clime to clime, wherever it has its "season." Moreover, palaces stand in ordinary thought as expensive expressions of the effort after pleasure; hence to those who envy the pleasure seekers and are jealous of the palace dwellers, the belief of material pleasure is even more real and aggressive than to those of whom Jesus said, "They that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses." Although the sybarite's life is to him usual and something of a bore, the envious mind, craving for luxury, feels resentment toward the fortunate.

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