Widely differing opinions are held as to what constitutes the happiness which mankind is seeking for, searching for, in all directions. Some are seeking it in idle amusement; others think material wealth will bring it, and so spend their lives accumulating vast fortunes; some think fame will secure it; while others look for it in social prominence. But in looking to materiality for happiness men can find only disappointment; for material sense is totally inadequate to give real happiness and contentment.
In the midst of prosperity, then, it is well to remember that so-called human joys are fleeting and temporal. Thought should be occupied with far higher considerations. Our false concepts of life hide life's sweeter joys. In the Sermon on the Mount we read, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." These treasures, or true riches, are to be obtained only through gaining spiritual understanding, or the true knowledge of God and of man's relation to Him, through the study of the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. The latter, as its name implies, is the "key" to the Scriptures, because it unlocks the treasures of the Bible. The rich promises contained therein glow with new-found meaning, and are being fulfilled to-day as in ages past. Through the light of Christian Science the pages of the Bible become illumined; and to every earnest student of Christian Science it is a much used and precious volume. The correct knowledge, or spiritual understanding, gained through the study of Christian Science, when held to and applied to daily life, is a safe guide to health and happiness, and is a source of continual joy; and we can never be deprived of this understanding, this treasure.
We must depart from a material sense of life in order to find the spiritual understanding of what God, Life, is. God has given us all good to enjoy; and as we look to Him as the divine source of all good, away from matter to Spirit and the true facts of existence, we find false pleasurable desires falling away and being replaced by spiritual aims and pursuits. "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also," said the Master.
