Article March 6, 1920 Issue

A Healed Heart

HELEN LUCILE ARMSTRONG

Literature has woven a romantic glamour about sorrow, and theology has placed a premium upon it. God Himself is named as its source. The thirty-fourth psalm contains a verse which is often quoted as a proof of God's sanction of grief and suffering: "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart." Christian Science is the gospel of true joy. On page 304 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says: "This is the doctrine of Christian Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object; that joy cannot be turned into sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; that good can never produce evil; that matter can never produce mind nor life result in death." In the Glossary of the same book we find this definition of heart (p. 587): "Mortal feelings, motives, affections, joys, and sorrows." As the clouds veil the sun, so selfish sorrows hide the radiance of divine Love. As the breaking of the mists reveals the light behind them, so the giving up of self-seeking, material hopes, and human planning makes known the ever nearness of our God. This is the true broken-heartedness that brings us nigh to Him. It may come in some hour of woe, but the mere experience of suffering will not alone and of itself bring us nearer to spirituality. If this were true, has there not been enough misery in the world to have ushered in heaven long since? It can only teach the frailty of mortal, material foundations for happiness.

The Father does not choose "seasons of distress and grief" to visit His children. He ever abides with us, and by seeking our happiness in Him, such "seasons" are expelled from our experience. "The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth," and "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." Dear one who mournest, where was thy joy, thy hope? In God? Surely not, else it could not have failed thee. Dry thy tears and rely on Him for all thy good, for He is good itself. Nothing that is real was ever lost nor can it be. Leave to His care that which thou seemest to have lost, or which seemeth to be withheld from thee, and bend thy ceaseless effort to learn of Him.

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