Article March 12, 1977 Issue

Joy Is Now

MABEL M. SCHULZ

We must guard against the suggestion that joy is a variable or illusive quality.

A hymn includes this thought: "Weeping may endure for a night, /But joy cometh in the morning." Christian Science Hymnal, No. 425; These beautiful lines should never suggest that tears are a forerunner, or even a competitor, of joy. A study of Mrs. Eddy's definitions of "night" and "morning" in the Glossary of Science and Health makes it clear that sadness can endure only so long as our thought abides in the darkness of doubt and fear, and that joy is coincident with our turning to the light of Truth. Such turning is of course possible at any moment.

Why should joy be considered less constant than other God-derived qualities? Many moral individuals, whether instructed in Christian Science or not, think of honesty as natural and enduring. They do not think of it as fragile, or fear that they may lose it or that circumstances may rob them of this prized possession. Yet these same individuals may think of joy as precarious.

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