Article July 6, 1963 Issue

Joy Comes from God

[Of Special Interest to Young Men and Women]

JOHN MARSHALL CUNO

Much of the apparent misery and sadness in the world today is brought about by false beliefs concerning the nature of joy. Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, clearly warns us against such beliefs when she states in "Miscellaneous Writings" (pp. 9, 10), "A false sense of what constitutes happiness is more disastrous to human progress than all that an enemy or enmity can obtrude upon the mind or engraft upon its purposes and achievements wherewith to obstruct life's joys and enhance its sorrows." To the conscientious reader of this passage, the question boldly asserts itself. "How can I rid my thought and experience of such false beliefs about happiness?"

In answering this question, the student of Christian Science will find it useful to examine and ponder the true nature of joy. Where does joy come from? How is it expressed? Christian Science teaches and demonstrates that joy comes from God. True joy does not come from any phase of material sense—person, place, or thing—no matter how promising or alluring it may appear to be. Joy is spiritual. Of necessity it must come from God, Spirit. The Psalmist sang (Ps. 16:11), "In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore."

Eventually, either through scientific understanding or through earthly disappointments and sorrows, mankind will come to the admission that there is no joy in matter. We can see that joy is a quality of God, which man expresses naturally and continuously, because man is God's complete spiritual idea, or expression, always. When correct concepts of God and of His harmonious creation are received into our thought, we can express gratitude and joy consistently.

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