To one student of Christian Science the word rejoice has taken on a wonderful meaning since an experience of a year ago last winter which led her to see the importance of rejoicing under every circumstance. Throughout the Psalms David constantly admonishes us to rejoice. In Psalms 68:3 we read: "But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea let them exceedingly rejoice." Again in I Thessalonians 5:16 we find Paul's command to "rejoice evermore." When health, harmony. Love —the kingdom of heaven—are reigning within, then it is very easy to obey that injunction to rejoice, but the real test comes when pain, affliction, sorrow, seem to prevail and to be real. In the writer's experience, however, it was proved that to rejoice even in the face of seeming defeat, yea, even in the death valley, brings an understanding of Life as God, ever present good.
During the epidemic that prevailed a year ago last winter the writer found herself entangled in the meshes of fear, and its consequent manifestation in the home. A child was the first to be touched by this insidious disease, but the healing was practically instantaneous, and the writer, in her overwhelming sense of gratitude to the practitioner who had handled the case, probably made the grave mistake of leaving Principle a little in the background; that is, of not giving to God the entire glory, but glorifying personality rather than Principle. Thus, unalert, she herself was caught in this trap of mesmerism, and a few hours after her little son's instantaneous healing, she herself was struggling to be free from the effect of wrong thinking. She did not, however, experience an instant release as did her little son; she had many things to learn. The days which followed seemed dark days, days in which fear and doubt, followed by despondency and discouragement, had to give way ere the mastery of the divine Mind over corporeal sense testimony could be demonstrated. At this point a change of practitioners was advisable. Then came a few days of intense fear, and after nine consecutive sleepless nights the sufferer, wrapping the robes of despair more closely around her, settled down into a state of mental apathy, and the next morning experienced the chill of the fear of death. Roused to activity, she called the practitioner and told her that she was dying. "Why! my dear, you could not possibly die," came the cheery response over the wire; "God is all-presence, all-power, and all-action. Rejoice! There is nothing destroys error like rejoicing, and I will go right to work." The writer in her eagerness to cling to this ray of hope made a feeble attempt to sing. Gradually the warmth and light of infinite Love flooded her consciousness, with its corresponding effect upon the body, and she found herself on the road to recovery. It had been a hard fight, but the patient and the practitioner had rejoiced and won the victory.— Chicago, Ill.
