Editorial October 1, 1938 Issue

True Happiness

Duncan Sinclair

Happiness ! How like a will-o'-the-wisp it seems to many—a joyous experience which, after a few brief moments, vanishes, leaving behind it only hope of its recurrence! Why is this? Why is happiness so often fleeting? The reason is that mortals live so much in the erroneous belief that matter and a material sense of selfhood are real. Unenlightened by spiritual understanding, the majority regard material activities as real, and seek satisfaction in the pursuit of these activities. They cater to the material senses in all manner of ways, only to find that genuine and lasting happiness does not lie along that line at all.

Christian Science makes known the secret of true happiness. Mrs. Eddy writes on page 337 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," "For true happiness, man must harmonize with his Principle, divine Love; the Son must be in accord with the Father, in conformity with Christ." It is apparent from this that true happiness has its source in God, Spirit, and, therefore, that it has no connection with materiality. God is Love, the source or cause of all that is real. He is the Father; and man is His son or idea. And as the idea of God, man reflects the harmony of God, Love, including unalloyed happiness. That is the truth about the real man, concerning which all men must become enlightened in order that they may achieve genuine happiness, as it is understood in Christian Science.

As indicated above, material indulgence cannot possible result in true happiness; neither can selfishness in any form. The egotist never can know it. His ambition is for self-aggrandizement, material attainments and material accumulations. He is too self-centered to see beyond himself to the truths of real being. The sensualist, too, has a concept of happiness which never rises above matter or the flesh. But let unselfishness and spirituality take the place of egotism and sensuousness; let one's motives and aims be actuated by love for God and man, and one enters the kingdom of divine Principle, where happiness abides. And not happiness alone, but strength and endurance as well. "Unselfish ambition, noble life-motives, and purity,—these constituents of thought, mingling, constitute individually and collectively true happiness, strength, and permanence" (ibid., p. 58).

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