Editorial February 24, 1934 Issue

Joy in the Truth

Duncan Sinclair

"With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation," writes Isaiah in the twelfth chapter of his book. The prophet is but stating what every Christian knows, that there is joy in the hearts of all who are obedient to God's law. Similar thought was voiced by Jesus when in comforting his disciples he said, "Your joy no man taketh from you." The Master had given them wonderful instruction on the nature of God and the kingdom of heaven, assuring them that God was their Father and that He cared for them with a love whose measure was beyond human power fully to comprehend. And with this knowledge of their sonship with God there had come to them a deep sense of certainty and joy. Whatever the condition in which the disciples may have found themselves after Jesus left them and while they worked to spread the gospel of the kingdom on earth, we can be certain that they retained their joy. The love of God could not be denied them. They were assured of this by their understanding of the indestructibility of true being.

Like the early followers of Christ Jesus, the Christian Scientist has much joy in his life, for he has the same conviction which the disciples had of the continuity of life and of the blessedness which accompanies spiritualization of thought. And, further, he has received great enlightenment on the nature of reality, or real being, from his study of Christian Science. What undoubtedly causes many to be lacking in joy is the mystery, to them, of existence. They may believe in God; they may believe Him to be Love; they may believe Him to be good; but how are they to account for the evil which appears to be in the world, the sickness, sin, sorrow, and death therein, which seem so often to take the joy out of living? Faced by good and evil, and believing both to be real, how, they may argue, is it possible to preserve the sense of continuous joyousness?

Christian Science has come to the world with a great revelation, a revelation which puts an entirely different complexion on existence from that previously held by mortals. It teaches the truth that, since God is wholly good, what men call evil does not in reality exist; that since God is infinite Life, what men call death is unreal; that since God is infinite Mind or Spirit, what men call matter is unreal; that since God is Truth, what men call error is unreal. In other words, by acclaiming God to be the infinitely good Mind or Spirit, Christian Science denies reality to matter and evil, and all that pertains thereto.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

This is the Harvest Hour