Article March 8, 1919 ISSUE

The Harp of Joy

GUSTAVUS S. PAINE

In the Psalms it is recorded that when the Jews were carried away captive and were required by their captors to sing the joyous songs of Zion, they hung their harps on the willows, complaining, "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?" Scott refers in "Ivanhoe" to the same occasion when he makes Rebecca say dolefully in her well-known hymn, "Our harps we left by Babel's streams." In other words, the children of Israel at this time seemed inclined under the stress of circumstances to cease rejoicing.

The fallacy of such an inclination Mrs. Eddy once pointed out emphatically when she said in a letter (published in The Christian Science Journal, December, 1915): "May His presence and power that guided your passage continue, and your harps never be hung upon the willows." No matter what the circumstances may be, no matter how strange may seem the land in which we find ourselves temporarily, we can never afford to put aside the harp of joy and give ourselves over to weeping. To rejoice evermore is the absolute demand of divine Principle, and even though a human being may seem to disobey this command, the real man in God's image ceaselessly observes it.

Send a comment to the editors
NEXT IN THIS ISSUE
Article
Purity
March 8, 1919
Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit