Editorial February 17, 1934 Issue

True Contentment

W. Stuart Booth

It is proverbial that the personal activities and achievements of men do not confer upon them complete contentment or satisfaction. There are always some will-o'-the-wisps of unsatisfied ambitions or desires, of unconquered obstacles or conditions, some unsolved problems which keep men from experiencing contentment. That the Psalmist was aware of this human difficulty and also knew its corrective is evident, for in turning his thought to God he sang, "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." True contentment, complete satisfaction, then, may be realized only through spiritual activity and attainments which follow dominant spiritual desire.

A certain rich ruler once appealed to Christ Jesus, asking, "Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" Although his eager questioning indicated that material wealth had not conferred happiness and contentment upon him, still the ruler clung to his false sense of riches and the accompanying discontent; for when the Master recommended that he seek and find true riches and satisfaction by means of unselfish sharing with others, "he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved." Christ Jesus found that the dissatisfaction caused by sickness, blindness, deafness, and the chafing bonds of sinful habits yielded more readily to the healing and liberating message of Truth than did the thought of the rich young man. All who felt the spiritual power of God's Word voiced by the Master were brought nearer than they had ever been to the point of awakening in God's likeness and thus to permanent satisfaction. For Jesus brought healing to men by seeing them in the true light as spiritual, not material, as God's children, manifesting His goodness, purity, peace, and perfection.

Now the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," elucidates simply and clearly the law of God which Jesus understood, obeyed, and demonstrated in his healing and redemptive works. Therefore it exposes and strikes at the taproot of humanity's discontent, discord, and disease. This taproot is the false belief that life, cause, and consciousness are in and of matter. If that assumption were a fact instead of a falsity, then men would be justified in seeking satisfaction, supply, and health in matter, and they would certainly find them there. But, as Mrs. Eddy queries on page 257 of the textbook, "Who hath found finite life or love sufficient to meet the demands of human want and woe,—to still the desires, to satisfy the aspirations?" There are none to give an affirmative answer to that question because no one can find the satisfaction, peace, and contentment conferred alone by Truth in that which is false.

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