Article February 19, 1927 Issue

Joy

CECILIA KRIETE SHOPE

As we advance in the study of Christian Science we learn to express joy. Comparatively few, until instructed by this Science, realize that joy is a spiritual quality. Joy, love, gratitude, unselfishness, peace, and expectancy of good are seen to be indissoluble, when a right concept of joy is revealed. They all are qualities of Life; and as Mrs. Eddy says in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 548), "Earth has little light or joy for mortals before Life is spiritually learned," and in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 19), "The spiritual sense of Life and its grand pursuits is of itself a bliss, health-giving and joy-inspiring." When this is understood, the illusive sense of joy is destroyed, because joy is seen to be not in materiality, not in the possession of wealth, popularity, influence, self-importance, and self-ease, but rather in the demonstration of one's unity with God, Life, Spirit, evidenced in the reflection of spiritual qualities, in approximating to the demands of the two great commandments and the Golden Rule.

Almost all have felt at some time the radiant happiness of work well done, the serenity of self-forgetfulness, and the mental freedom gained by lifting someone's thought to higher, better ideals. And would anyone who has experienced the joy of spiritual healing ever think of comparing other methods with it?

Frequently, joy and happiness are sought through a human sense of love. To love and to be loved is the normal inclination of everyone; but friendship or love that centers around a false selfhood, one's own or another's, will ultimately lose its joy, because spiritual reality does not underlie it. All true love, all true friendship, must be based on divine Principle; to give enduring joy, it must embody purity, constancy, honesty, and self-immolation. Through unhappy experiences many have learned the truth of our Leader's words in our textbook (p. 266): "Would existence without personal friends be to you a blank? Then the time will come when you will be solitary, left without sympathy; but this seeming vacuum is already filled with divine Love. When this hour of development comes, even if you cling to a sense of personal joys, spiritual Love will force you to accept what best promotes your growth." And Mrs. Eddy adds, "Universal Love is the divine way in Christian Science." Paul also speaks of joy as one of the fruits of the Spirit.

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