Article December 5, 1936 Issue

"The joy of the Lord"

PEARL G. ANDREWS

On page 268 of "Miscellaneous Writings" our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, tells us that "God's preparations for the sick are potions of His own qualities." Students of the Science of Christianity, revealed and established by Mrs. Eddy, recognize the indisputable fact that qualities which reflect God, such as gratitude, gladness, goodness, happiness, and joy, are health-giving and health-protecting; and there are some physical scientists, as well, and members of the medical profession who admit the importance of the cultivation of these qualities as preventive and curative agencies. Then again King Solomon, who with God-given wisdom perceived the value of joy, wrote, in Proverbs, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones."

Early one spring the writer received much inspiration from observing the unfoldment of some potted geraniums which were brought forth from the dark corner where they had been kept during the winter months. Tall, spindling, with pale and insipid appearance of leaf and stem, they were indeed sorry-looking specimens of this usually sturdy plant. They were placed in sunny windows of the basement, preparatory to being moved, later on, to beds in the garden, given proper and regular care, and left to the influence of the kindly rays of the sun. It was a delight to witness their unfoldment. New shoots soon came forth. The stems took on a deeper shade of green, and fresh leaves made their appearance. The unattractive, frail, and almost worthless-looking plants were giving promise of strength and beauty. With quiet observance of this transformation came the thought that joy is to our consciousness as was the sunshine to the plants. Can one hope to manifest health and harmony in the gloom of despondency and discouragement, or when indulging in disgruntled thoughts? No more than plants can grow in the dark corners of a basement!

Mrs. Eddy says in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 162), "Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates and purifies." The illuminating radiancy of Truth and Love as it dawns upon individual consciousness, through the study of Christian Science, cannot help bringing to the sin-sick heart and pain-racked body joyful release. The understanding that evil never was, and is not, present in the form of pain, poverty, or discord of any nature, that it can never enter actual Life, because God, good, is All, was All, and ever will be All, does indeed establish that joy to which Nehemiah turned the people when he said to them, "The joy of the Lord is your strength."

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