THE question, "Is it wrong for us to have a good time?" comes frequently from those taking up the study of Christian Science. Preconceptions regarding this question seem capable of every extreme. It therefore demands a right answer, not only for the harmony of the questioner, but also for the protection of our Cause, that misconceptions may not become prevalent through ignorance or misapplication of Christian Science teaching. We are glad that the Bible and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy have already given the answer.
By all means, Science declares, it is right for everyone to have a good time. By word and by example one is taught to reach out and up, to drink freely and deeply of all that is good and beautiful. Furthermore, an important part of the activity of Christian Science is to help men to realize their God-given freedom from that which would shackle and limit, for the express purpose that they may find good, and find it most abundantly. "But how may one define a good time?" returns the questioner, who cannot have touched the mere hem of Christian Science, else he would have perceived that new standards of thought and action are already replacing the old.
If Jesus rebuked the one calling him, "Good Master," with the words, "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God," should we not ask, Why callest thou anything good save that which comes from God, especially since the Bible so emphatically declares that "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning"? Since God is the only creator, and all that He creates is "very good," as the Bible avers, it is evident that nothing can be good which does not come from God. Hence, in Science, one cannot conceive of a really good time except as a time when God's loving presence and sanction are apparent.
