Editorial November 13, 1948 Issue

UNQUENCHABLE JOY

Helen Wood Bauman

Real joy can never be quenched or lost. It is not dependent upon personal satisfaction or material possessions; it is not conditioned by human circumstances, nor is it the special mark of youth. Christian Science reveals joy as an attribute of God and demonstrates its perpetual presence as the unfoldment of divine Love's eternal individualization of good. Paul named joy as one of the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22), and in his letter to the Romans (14:17) likened joy in the Holy Ghost, which is divine Science, to the kingdom of God.

He who would prove God to be his source, by knowing man as divine Mind's sinless expression, should see to it that his joy is continuous and unbroken. Loss of joy may be a warning that his realization of man's unity with God is being challenged or that his demonstration of health is threatened. Since joy originates in God—not in self—it is demonstrable under every condition or in any environment as an element of man's real being.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, named joy as a constituent of man. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" she writes (p. 76): "The sinless joy, —the perfect harmony and immortality of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness without a single bodily pleasure or pain, —constitutes the only veritable, indestructible man, whose being is spiritual." Man, being constituted of joy, cannot depart from it. Hence the presence of sinless joy evidences the presence of true manhood.

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