Article May 12, 1956 Issue

BE JOYFUL!

S. LESLIE G. BEAUFOY

What a wonderful, health-giving quality is joy! It is one which we all in reality possess. Do we doubt that statement and perhaps think to ourselves, "Well, right now I seem to have little to be joyful about"? Perhaps we regard joy as the effect of some experience, some mental uplifting, or some kindness shown to us. It is certainly right that we should be joyful in such circumstances when that joy springs from and is synonymous with true gratitude. But joy is not merely an aftereffect. We do not need to wait for it. Joy is not limited by time or circumstance. Joy is spiritual, thus ever present.

The Christian Scientist recognizes joy as an ineffaceable element of true being, a positive and permanent radiance which requires no anterior event for its omniactive expression. The Bible teaches us that God made all and that all is good. What can have happened to change that all-good? Why, nothing at all! One might as well ask, "Why do two and two make six?"

Christian Science teaches us that all evil rests on this basis, namely that it is a mistake. Evil is not a real entity but just an error about something true, about the unchangeable, untouchable goodness of God. Christian Scientists use the word "error" to classify all that is unlike God, good, and those becoming acquainted with Christian Science start to learn life anew from this standpoint, with wonderful results.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

"PUT ON THE ARMOUR OF LIGHT"