In that enlightened human document called the Declaration of Independence appears the challenging statement that every individual has a right to "the pursuit of happiness." Christian Science brings to each of us an even more remarkable gift. It shows that we can accept true happiness as a present actuality. Therefore we no longer need pursue it, thus eliminating the fear that we may perhaps fail to catch up with it. We understand it to be a quality inseparable from our real selfhood.
Humanly considered, happiness is a state of well-being, with freedom from mental or physical distress. However, the word often implies mere sensuous pleasure, which invariably ends in boredom, disappointment, or regret. It is interesting to note that the word "happy" stems from the Middle English word "hap," meaning chance.
Christian Science replaces this restricted and mutable interpretation of happiness with the true satisfaction which belongs to man as divine idea. When Mary Baker Eddy, in answer to the question, "What is man?" states in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 475), "He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas," she places within the immediate reach of all the complete satisfaction which is inherent in man. This cannot be comprehended intellectually by mortal mind. This misnamed mind is of no help in understanding the facts of true being and has to be put off. When we turn to the divine Mind, which is immutable good, we can learn the truth about man, and so find lasting satisfaction.
