LAST year in the Royal Academy, London, England, hung a picture entitled, "Joy and the Laborer." Two figures only were represented one, a sweet-faced child just blossoming into intelligent girlhood, seated upon a grassy bank, singing; and the other a bent and wrinkled old man who, having ceased for the while his delving in the furrows, was leaning upon his spade listening to the child's song. In a corner of the picture were painted these words;
Take Joy home
And make a place in thine own heart for her,
And give her time to grow, and cherish her.
Then will she often come and sing to thee
When thou art working in the furrows,
Aye, or weeding in the sacred hour of dawn
It is a comely fashion to be glad—
Joy is the grace we say to God.
The artist, an earnest student of Christian Science, with her message of hope, reached not a few among the many thousands which thronged the Royal Academy during the London season. Many who had been seeking long in the furrows of material sense for happiness, stopped before this picture to ponder its meaning, and the seed of Truth thus sown fell not always upon stony ground. All the world would like to "take joy home," but until Mrs. Eddy, through Christian Science, showed us the real, we had all been taking home counterfeits of Joy. And we cherished these spurious joys and watched1 them grow, and trusted that in moments of work and worry they would sing and comfort us. And then, when the furrows were long, and the sun hot, and the weeds deep-rooted, they sang not, they only sobbed or mocked. So, as one by one these false joys failed us, we began to doubt the existence of any real Joy, and bent to our tasks in the furrows unattended sometimes even by hope. "Now across a night of error dawn the morning beams, and shines the guiding star of Truth" (Science and Health, Preface). In the light of Christian Science we see how it is possible here and now to seek and find the real Joy, the Joy the weary world has been seeking so long. But there is but one strait and narrow pathway to Joy, and he who would seek her must take the first great step in the right direction, otherwise he seeks an illusive phantom and will never find the real Joy.
