Article December 8, 1956 Issue

JOY TO THE WORLD

VIRGINIA DORSEY WHITAKER

At the happy season of giving, of expressing "good will toward men," it is perhaps easier than usual to be consistently joyous. To the Christian Scientist, the Christmas season brings the rich reminder of what Christmas really stands for. Mary Baker Eddy says (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 260), "The basis of Christmas is the rock, Christ Jesus; its fruits are inspiration and spiritual understanding of joy and rejoicing,—not because of tradition, usage, or corporeal pleasures, but because of fundamental and demonstrable truth, because of the heaven within us."

The spiritual understanding of joy and rejoicing, an integral part of our wonderful heritage as the tenderly cared-for children of our Father-Mother God, includes the priceless realization that joy is ours at all times and under all conditions. It is ours in storm and in sunshine, in times of seeming pain, sorrow, and limitation, as well as in periods of more peaceful progress. Christian Scientists are demonstrating increasing joy in their daily experience by turning resolutely away from any discordant sense testimony and holding fast to the truths of harmonious being.

One of the most heartening revelations of Christian Science is that because joy is real, the ever-present gift of divine Love, its supposititious opposite, sorrow, has no power. On this basis sorrow should promptly be forbidden entrance into our thinking, no matter what picture mortal mind may be imaging. We must be watchful too in regard to two particularly insidious forms of negative thinking which would attempt to deprive us of our joy: regret for the past and dread of the future.

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