Article March 1, 1930 Issue

Looking Upward

OLIVER BOWLES

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE is the most hopeful and joyinspiring religion in the world to-day. It brings to the earnest seeker the joyous freedom of knowing that evil is not inevitable; that God is not the author of sorrow and trouble; and that the inharmonies which so dishearten and discourage those who fear and tremble before them, are but shadows or phantoms which disappear before the light of the understanding of God's allness, His ever-presence, His loving care and protection.

The optimism of Christian Science is not mere sentiment. It is the logical outcome of sound reasoning, based on eternal, unchanging facts. God is Love, and in reality we are His children, heirs of all that Love bestows. Sin, sorrow, and all other discordant conditions are unknown in the spiritual realm of reality, which embraces good alone.

This calm expectancy of good does not imply, however, that Christian Scientists are always immediately victorious over depression, sorrow, and discouragement. Many of those who are earnestly striving to gain a clearer understanding of Christian Science and to follow in the footsteps of the master Scientist, Christ Jesus, have found their pathway beset by many difficulties. Temporary defeat may rob them of the joy of overcoming; and reiterated trials may tempt them to give way to despair and discouragement. To such, there should be no turning aside and no dimming of the light of hope and happy expectation; for the history of human progress shows that nothing truly worthy of attainment is reached without an effort. Though the great Way-shower was "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," yet his admonition to his disciples was, "Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."

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