Article February 21, 1959 Issue

IMPORTANCE OF JOY

MARY BRETZ REED

Running through the Scriptures and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy is a thread of joy which shows this quality to be absolutely essential to the worship of the one God. Christian Science cannot be practiced without it. True joy is spiritual, the natural accompaniment of peace, dominion, and love, and springs from an understanding of man as the complete image of God.

Joy is expressed as one sees that it is a quality of God which is always present with man by reflection and that worry, fear, sorrow, doubt, and discouragement, which would seem to dissipate one's joy, indicate a mesmeric belief in a power apart from God. Since God is All, then He includes all joy, and man reflects joy now.

Christ Jesus himself advised his followers to express joy. When under the shadow of the crucifixion, he reiterated their need for joy (John 15:11), "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full."

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