Article January 22, 1921 Issue

Joy

LESLIE M. KNAPP

To the sincere student of Christian Science, the greatest joy, the deepest happiness, lies in acting in obedience to Principle. In the practice of peace, love, compassion toward all men, in the endeavor to judge righteous judgment in all things, in the striving to curb for one's self all the lusts of the carnal mind, all malice, passion, hate, envy, covetousness, deceit, slothfulness, lack of moral courage, fear, and the like, come happiness and gladness, the sweet and certain sense that God is all-powerful Love, that man, His perfect child, Mind's immaculate idea, can know, can feel, no error.

True joy and satisfaction must ever follow obedience to the commands of Christ Jesus. How many times, in the Scriptures, are we bidden to rejoice! "A man of sorrows" Jesus was called; but it must be a source of satisfaction to all Christian Scientists that the revelation to Mary Baker Eddy, which she gave to the world, of the Principle which inspired the life and work of Jesus, has eradicated the concept of Jesus as a man of sorrow, and replaced it with the thought of him as a man of joy, whose words and example to all were of peace, compassion, brotherliness, love, rejoicing.

No one can measure, no thought can picture, the depth of the joy which Jesus must have felt during his three years' ministry, as daily he saw the illusions of sin, sickness, disease, lack, death, disappear before his pure understanding of the allness of God and the nothingness of evil. The happiness which he spread to those around him—the joy of those healed from seemingly incurable diseases, the gladness of those who received their dead living through his word, the delight of those who, like the woman taken in adultery, saw through the Christ the better way of life, show truly that the so-called "man of sorrows" was one who reflected joy and happiness to all who were willing to believe his word. Looking down to later days, we see the joy and happiness reflected by Mary Baker Eddy to mankind. Reading the story of her life, we note how she preserved her good humor and love for mankind through the unrealities of persecution and other error which sought to deter her from her inspired purpose, living to see thousands healed, through her revelation of Christian Science, from so-called incurable diseases, from belief in the pleasure or necessity of sin, from the grip of evil habits.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Joy

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access