A WORLD crying out for happiness! So universal is the desire for happiness that, look where we may, everyone seems to be pursuing it.
Recognizing the inalienable right of every individual to seek and obtain happiness, and seeing the grief, deprivation, and misery so often apparent in the world, one must conclude that many do not know what real happiness is, and therefore do not look for it in the right direction. This failure to secure happiness and its beneficent effects arises in most cases from the erroneous impression that happiness depends upon the acquisition of some external object, or upon some combination of circumstances gratifying to the material senses; or again, upon something pertaining to atmosphere, or location, or human relationship. Yet, a little consideration, drawn from observation and experience, convinces one that happiness is a state of mind rather than a condition of material circumstances.
The same thing may be said about grief, which is the opposite of happiness, in essence, in manifestation, and in effect. While grief may manifest itself in distress, and happiness in felicity, both are mental states externalized upon the body and in one's environment. There is, however, this great distinction, made clear through the teachings of Christian Science, that true happiness is a quality of divine Mind, while grief arises in the human mind through a sense of loss, misfortune, or disappointment. Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 57), "Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love." Grief, on the contrary, has never known a spiritual origin, and is only a darkened sense, unknown to Truth and Love. Happiness is forever operative, as an emanation of Spirit, while grief is a passing illusion, a cloud which vanishes when the sunlight of divine Love reveals life's true values and the unfailing joy of spiritual living and blessedness.
