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Smiles of Spiritual Gladness
A WOMAN sat alone in a street car, discouraged and unhappy. In every direction her outlook seemed dark. Her husband was ill in a hospital; she had been told by physicians that she must have an operation in five days; her five young children were of necessity to be placed with strangers. While contemplating this dismal future, she looked up and saw a woman smile! Oh, she thought, what has she to make her smile like that? She watched the woman get off the street car, and continued to watch where she was going. She is going to that Christian Science lecture where all these people are going, she said to herself; if it is Christian Science that makes her smile like that, I want it. The next day she went to a Christian Science practitioner; and in a few days she found herself perfectly free, and when examined by the physicians she was pronounced well. Before long her husband was out of the hospital, and her five little children were enrolled in a Christian Science Sunday School.
Three years later she met the woman who had smiled, and asked permission to walk with her. Then she told gratefully of her joyous experience. What healing message was in the smile of the Christian Scientist which brought response to a hungry, despondent heart? It was the radiance of gratitude, the understanding of universal Love, the realization of God's nearness and dearness, His readiness to heal and save.
There seem to be many erroneous conditions to take the smiles from our lips and hearts: human suffering, the illusion of pleasure in sin, thoughtless words or deeds, separation from loved ones—in short, belief in a power apart from God. What a comfort it is to know that these conditions are not true, because God never made them! Does the hardness, cruelty, indifference, or injustice of mortal mind steal from us the light and joy which are our rightful inheritance? Let us look up! God created His children perfect, capable only of expressing goodness, love, gentleness, and kindness, and it is our privilege to reject erroneous suggestions with the firm acknowledgment of God's power. Underneath, above, and all around is the law of universal Love, operating to bless all men, to supply abundantly, to guard and to guide.
Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.
May 13, 1933 issue
View Issue-
Claiming True Relationship
SUSAN F. CAMPBELL
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Scaling "the pinnacle of praise"
ALFRED PITTMAN
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Modes, Human and Divine
ELEANORA B. CARR
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Past, Present, and Future
ROBERT DICKINSON NORTON
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Free Christian Science Reading Rooms
DOROTHY M. JANSEN
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Smiles of Spiritual Gladness
ELSE W. SWINSON
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Leadership
ROBERT S. VAN ATTA
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A Prayer
MARY I. MESECHRE
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In the "Public Opinion" column of your paper, issue of...
Richard O. Shimer, Committee on Publication for the State of Indiana,
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Your issue of November 2 contains an article, "Dreams, Folklore, and Neurasthenia"
William K. Primrose, Assistant to the District Manager of Committees on Publication for Great Britain and Ireland,
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The preacher who delivered the sermon at the graduation...
Francis Lyster Jandron, Committee on Publication for the State of Michigan,
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The Tranquil Heart
MINNY M. H. AYERS
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"No good thing will he withhold"
Duncan Sinclair
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Nothing Merely Happens
W. Stuart Booth
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From the Directors
The Christian Science Board Of Directors
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The Lectures
with contributions from John B. Paul, James William Barker, Donna R. Henrietta
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In 1916, through the gentle ministrations of Christian Science,...
Margaret McMillan with contributions from Ian McMillan
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I wish to express my sincere gratitude for what Christian Science...
Amanda A. Bishop
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It is with heartfelt gratitude that I recount a few of the...
Harold J. Cundy
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I am deeply grateful for Christian Science, the Science...
Ilo Willits Ferree
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Before I took up the study of Christian Science my outlook...
Beulah Frances Pack
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Some seventeen years ago Christian Science came to me...
Gertrude Mary Gloyne with contributions from Gertrude Marjorie Maynard Gloyne
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Christian Science has brought so many blessings into my...
Marjorie Calef
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When All the World is Glorious with Spring
ALMA G. V. HARRISON
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Signs of the Times
with contributions from James Reid, Francis C. Ellis, Nathaniel Schmidt