The question, What is joy, and what is it to enjoy? is sometimes asked, and it can perhaps be most satisfactorily answered out of one's own experience. The mortal body without the aid of mortal mind could have no sense of pleasure; hence all joy must be mental. The joys or pleasures of this so-called mind are to see, hear, feel, taste, and smell. A great deal of enjoyment is supposed to come to mortals by these channels, but how much of it is unmixed with evil, unadulterated good? Also, what proportion of this joy is lasting, substantial? None, you say. Indeed, if any of the mortal concepts could be prolonged indefinitely, mortal mind would not be in evidence, for it is as fickle as it is fleeting.
Further proof of the unreliability of mortal mind is that what is thought good by one is pronounced evil by another. So poor deluded mortal mind is found to be insubstantial, unreliable, a lie and unreal, because a lie, being ever opposed to Truth, to divine intelligence, cannot have reality. As this fact becomes apparent to consciousness, the mocking tyrant, mortal mind, gloating and triumphing in its ignorant belief in its own power, falls an unmourned victim to the two-edged sword of Truth, and man is beheld as free, the perfect likeness of God; the divine idea, the image of infinite Mind.
During the conflicts between Spirit and flesh, Truth and error, the latter has grown increasingly subtle and tyrannical, thereby destroying confidence in the testimony of material sense. Thus error kills itself. To gain spiritual joy we must overcome every false belief that matter can give pain or pleasure, and the final demonstration will be the glorious understanding of Life as God. This fact being established, material life is seen to be a myth, and if all true joy be in the understanding of divine Mind, in reflecting infinite Love, we shall look in loving obedience to the one who more than any other man taught and demonstrated the fruits of obedience and love, whose coming was the fulfilment of the law.
Christ Jesus gave love for hate and life for death just as naturally as he turned the water into wine and fed the hungering multitudes. He was ever grateful to the Father, to whom he ascribed all glory and honor and power. There can be no doubt that his Principle was Love, for to his disciples he said: "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." And then he gave the commandment, obedience to which would open the very gates of heaven on earth, "Love one another, as I have loved you." How simple he made the way! How sweet to follow his example in loving, in healing, and in forgiveness, when we know that the Christ demonstrated by Jesus is the only God-created man. Mortal man, sinner and sinned against, is seen to be unreal, and in this light the true man is seen to have limitless possibilities and to possess absolute dominion over every material belief.
This clear apprehension of the truth of being, as taught and demonstrated by Mrs. Eddy, proves itself to be the Comforter promised by the Master. It does make known to us all things concerning him, even opening to our understanding much of the truth which may not have been fully discerned by those who were the disciples of Jesus. In proportion as her grateful prayers led her to the glorious heights of Christ's teachings, do we pray to follow her, reverently, thankfully, and lovingly. Our hearts go out in gratitude to God for the perfect love which His gift of the Christ manifested to men, and for the joy which attends the full realization of this gift.
One of the most helpful offerings to mankind from the heart of our Leader, who unfolds to us the Comforter, is her loving message given in the hymn "Christ My Refuge" (Poems, p. 12) Its words suggest ideas which uplift the multitudes who sing them in church and home, but more than all they bring to light in each consciousness the radiance, harmony, sanctity, purity, and love in which the spiritualized senses of humanity find delight. Shutting the door on all consciousness of mortality, safe "in the secret place of the most High," the earnest seeker for good stands patiently, alertly waiting for the divine harmony, even the sad, sweet strains which woo the frightened slave of the Adam-dream into a tardy realization that no pain or sorrow is real.
As men slowly emerge out of the darkness of this mortal nightmare into the realm of the real, they are gently taken possession of by a throng of angel thoughts, those constant assurances of God's nearness and dearness. The waiting consciousness grows more and more alert for good, as these radiant visitors cover him with a shining robe as pure as his soaring thoughts; he finds himself sanctified by virtue of their touch, and basks in the happiness of this love-perfumed atmosphere. In the exuberance of this spiritual joy he gratefully turns to help others to fight the good fight, that they too may see the glory, hear the melodies of divine Truth, strive after purity until it shall descend upon them; be satisfied with the sweet waters of Spirit, and inhale the strengthening, satisfying fragrance of Love.
Thus is mortal sense displaced by the intelligence which the understanding of God and His universe, including man, imparts. Even as Jesus glorified the Father by using the cross to prove the nothingness of error's power, we may glory in crossing out every subtle argument of error, consecrating our every thought to the blessed overcoming which concerns the whole brotherhood of man. Each triumph over sin, disease, and death makes man correspondingly more familiar with ultimate good, the divine Principle which is God. Reveling in His radiant presence, in which no burden of condemnation veils the merciful light of Truth, the grateful heart learns that what God hath made "every whit whole" must be holy indeed.
Evil is merely an illusion, and would involve a waste of precious moments of consciousness when the work of eternity is to know God. No condemnation of storms within or anger without, no burden of grief, sorrow, loss, or lack can depress the one who has welcomed the divine idea. In the penetrating light of Truth, which is most strongly seen when life's burdens are thus disposed of, one finds himself nearer to the perfect understanding of a bright and beautiful world of Love's divine creation.
Then can the dear Master who is with us alway be recognized. One truly sees Christ walking the waves and goes in faith to meet him, conscious only of the spiritual joy which this reward for consecration to scientific thought has brought to his experience. As, with eyes steadfastly fastened on the nearing shore of Life eternal, one walks the surging waves of good and evil, sickness and health, life and death, hand in hand with the Saviour, he grows increasingly grateful. Safe at last, the blessed rock of spiritual understanding having been gained, he looks calmly down on the seething sea of human emotion, — selfish love, envy, hatred, lust, revenge, self-justification, and deceit. Possessed of all of the blessings with which he who overcomes is crowned, conscious of the close proximity of the Father, happy in the companionship of God's "own children," the freed son of light turns to divine Mind alone for compassionate wisdom, that he may show the poor in spirit that theirs is indeed the kingdom of heaven.
The old helpless sense of poverty, which could neither relieve oneself nor another, has given place to the demonstration of spiritual abundance. Then the earnest desire to help brings daily opportunities, for in Christian Science we are taught that "desire is prayer" (Science and Health, p. I) and all scientific demonstration is achieved by prayer which in itself understands the verities of being and knows man's highest, most supreme joy to be in the acceptance of God as the only reality. A sense of emotional joy has given place to the stately soul-satisfying harmonies of Truth.
