Article August 12, 1967 Issue

True Joy and Gladness—Now!

WELLMAN E. GERKE

Men everywhere long to feel and express more than just a fleeting, uncertain sense of joy and gladness. How normal and right it is to manifest these qualities always! But in spite of all of the so-called modern freedoms, opportunities, and material facilities for enjoying life, mankind often find unhappiness prevailing.

What seems to stand in the way of the continuous realization and expression of joy? Is it not the acceptance of what material sense says about cause and effect, about man and the universe, about God? Such unquestioning acceptance amounts to a tacit admission that there is no God or that God is not Spirit, infinite good. It contradicts the Bible, which states that God is Spirit. But when one acknowledges the spiritual as real, he denies the claim of the material senses that all is matter. He begins to understand the all-ness of God and man's unity with Him. In the consciousness of spiritual truth there is real joy.

Joy that obtains in material sense is fleeting, temporary, a sort of "now we have it, now we don't" proposition. Anticipation of such joy is always better than realization, because material sense can never fulfill its promises. Its joys disappear like the mirage in the desert.

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