Editorial August 31, 1940 Issue

Joy

Alfred Pittman

It early becomes apparent to the student of Christian Science that joy is spiritually natural. He recognizes it as a quality of God, divine Mind, of whom man is the perfect expression; and as he does this, he usually finds himself happier than he was. Through gaining some understanding of his true selfhood as God's likeness, he has clearer evidence of the perfection of that selfhood.

The joy of the divine Mind arises, it is plain, from its consciousness of the allness of good, and this consciousness is reflected by man. Therefore the student begins to see that, like Mind, he can in his real being cognize only good. He sees, further, that good which he can know is not just what he formerly regarded as good. It is vastly better and more satisfying. Good is God; Mind, or intelligence, which is ceaselessly inspiring; Love, which is perfect, changeless, and infinitely resourceful; Life which is altogether harmonious, and eternal. Because of the infinitude of good, of Mind, Life, and Love, the student sees that this divine Principle, which delights and blesses "without variableness," is always present, and that nothing unlike it can really be present, or exist. To begin to understand these basic facts in Science is to be joyful in a new way.

The true understanding of joy is of much practical value in the experience of the student of Christian Science. If, for example, he seems unhappy, he can recognize at once, scientifically, that this is an unnatural and unnecessary condition; and such recognition is in itself an obvious advantage. But his knowledge of the true nature of joy enables him, further, to see where to look for it. He knows that joy is an attribute of God, divine Love. Therefore he has to waste no time in looking for it in matter or materiality, where it is never to be found, but sees that it can be in evidence for him through the expression of Love. As he acts accordingly, and succeeds in forgetting himself in the fuller showing forth of divine Love in his thought and life, the unhappiness vanishes, and joy appears for him, as it has many times done for others.

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