WHY WE SHOULD REJOICE

MABEL ALBERTA SPICER.

On page 15 of our text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, we read, "Christians rejoice in secret beauty and bounty, hidden from the world, but known to God." In Luke's Gospel we are told that when the seventy returned from their mission that it was "with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name." Jesus replied, "Behold, I give unto you power of tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." According to this we are not to rejoice in material prosperity or even physical health, but rather in the possession of the understanding that God is the only power, and that all creation, including man, is subject to this one power alone. The improved material conditions are only "signs following," and not the primary reason for rejoice.

Most of us before learning of Christian Science were in doubt and uncertainly as to the nature of God and His relation to man; or, if we held any fixed opinions of Him, they were of a God who sent or permitted sin, disease, and death. Though we declared Him to be omnipotent, we believed that His plans might be thwarted by the will of mortal man, who had it within his power to estrange himself from his creator for time and eternity; but what great cause of rejoicing have we, when we learn through the teachings of Christian Science that God is the Principle of all good, and that His relation to man harmonious and indestructible; when we learn that sin, disease, and death are not a part of His plan, and that an understanding of God as Principle will destroy these impostors; that evil is not power, and that though the storm may still seem to rage, we are planted on a rock which cannot be moved.

It was this spiritual insight which enabled the psalmist to sing in time of trouble: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains he carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved."

The true cause for rejoicing is again brought out in the account of the raising of Lazarus from the dead, as given in the eleventh chapter of St. John. Followed by the mourning sisters and friends of Lazarus, Jesus approached the tomb where his friend had been four days, and ordered the stone to be removed from the entrance. Then, with Lazarus still lying in the tomb, with Mary and Martha and their friends weeping near by, and all of the mournful conditions unchanged to material sense. "Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me." Why should Jesus say "I thank thee that thou hast heard me." while Lazarus still lay in the tomb? Was he not rather giving thanks for the spiritual discernment which revealed to him that, whatever the physical manifestations, his friend continued to live, that God as Life cannot he separated from His creation? Matthew and Luke record Jesus' gratitude that the things hidden from the "wise and prudent" had been revealed unto "babes." He did not need the testimony of material sense, he rejoiced in the spiritual fact.

Why should we, as Christian Scientists, rejoice, though we still seem to see discord and unhappiness about us? Should not the cause of our rejoicing be found in the fact of the oneness of God and the spiritual man, and in the understanding of the unreality of evil? On page 471 of our text book" we are told that "the facts of divine Science should be admitted,— although the evidence as to these facts is not supported by evil, by matter, or by material sense,— because the evidence that God and man coexist is fully sustained by spiritual sense." In giving a treatment we should rejoice in the truth of each statement made, rather than in the material manifestation of harmony, which is but the result of abiding in the consciousness of the truth.

The narrative in St. John continues, "And when he [Jesus] thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, coming forth. And he that was dead came forth." This coming forth of Lazarus from the tomb was the natural result of Jesus' joy-giving spiritual discernment of the ever-presence of God as Life. Likewise the improved material and physical conditions of Christian Scientists are the result of quickened spiritual sense, which reveals to them the infinite provisions of Truth. Let us then, rejoice that Truth is revealed, and that we have been shown the way which leads out of all discord, remembering the beautiful words of our Leader in Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 389) :—

I will follow and rejoice
All the rugged way.

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