Joy Through Humility

Last year in the Royal Academy, London, England, hung a picture entitled, “Joy and the Laborer.” Two figures only were represented one, a sweet-faced child just blossoming into intelligent girlhood, seated upon a grassy bank, singing; and the other a bent and wrinkled old man who, having ceased for the while his delving in the furrows, was leaning upon his spade listening to the child’s song. In a corner of the picture were painted these words;

Take Joy home
And make a place in thine own heart for her,
And give her time to grow, and cherish her.
Then will she often come and sing to thee
When thou art working in the furrows,
Aye, or weeding in the sacred hour of dawn
It is a comely fashion to be glad—
Joy is the grace we say to God.

The artist, an earnest student of Christian Science, with her message of hope, reached not a few among the many thousands which thronged the Royal Academy during the London season. Many who had been seeking long in the furrows of material sense for happiness, stopped before this picture to ponder its meaning, and the seed of Truth thus sown fell not always upon stony ground. All the world would like to “take joy home,” but until Mrs. Eddy, through Christian Science, showed us the real, we had all been taking home counterfeits of Joy. And we cherished these spurious joys and watched1 them grow, and trusted that in moments of work and worry they would sing and comfort us. And then, when the furrows were long, and the sun hot, and the weeds deep-rooted, they sang not, they only sobbed or mocked. So, as one by one these false joys failed us, we began to doubt the existence of any real Joy, and bent to our tasks in the furrows unattended sometimes even by hope. “Now across a night of error dawn the morning beams, and shines the guiding star of Truth” (Science and Health, Preface). In the light of Christian Science we see how it is possible here and now to seek and find the real Joy, the Joy the weary world has been seeking so long. But there is but one strait and narrow pathway to Joy, and he who would seek her must take the first great step in the right direction, otherwise he seeks an illusive phantom and will never find the real Joy.

That first great step is humility. So important is this step, that Mrs. Eddy in “Miscellaneous Writings,” p. 356, calls humility “the genius of Christian Science.”

Mortal man is finite. The finite must forever be humble in the presence of the Infinite. Pride and self-worship can no more abide in the presence of the Infinite, than can darkness abide in the presence of light. Even the smallest conception of the Infinite Presence, unformed and unexpressed in words, filtering, it may be. through the densest material thought, will, in some measure, cause finite mortal sense to shrink and humble itself. Therefore, total lack of humility must indicate a total unconsciousness of God’s presence: a pride so great, a self so insistent, a dream of matter so dense, as to shut out the Voice which forever calls, “Awake thou that sleepest!”

David says in the eighth Psalm, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained: what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” The psalmist in humble mood had caught a sense of the all-Power and Presence, and the abasement of material self followed as a natural consequence.

And so, mortal mind, dreaming its sad or merry material dream, comes ever and anon into a semi-wakeful state in which it catches, as it were “through a glass, darkly,” a glimpse of the Infinite. It may be the view for the first time of some stupendous work of nature, a lofty mountain-peak capped with snow and solitude, a rushing cataract, or wide-spreading sea; or it may be the changing of the colors on the autumn leaf, the budding of a flower, or the myriad splendors of a summer evening’s sky; or it may be only a quiet word of truth spoken in love, which, catching mortal sense in its semi-wakeful state, whispers of the presence of the Infinite. Then finite sense, glimpsing the Infinite in that moment, bows humbly before the presence of the Mind omnipotent. Pride, self-will, self-righteousness, self-justification, all go down to their native nothingness, and mortal mind, stripped of its shadowy armor cries humbly, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?”

This humbling of mortal sense in the presence of the Infinite, must have been preceded by a sense of humility. Had mortal mind concerned itself about the mountain-peak only from a climber’s point of view, or watched the budding flower from a purely botanical standpoint, or scanned the glorious evening sky solely with the weather-prophet’s eye, it would have missed the deeper means which tell of God. Self-wisdom knows no god but self. In Science and Health, p. 240, we read, “Nature voices natural law and divine Love, but human belief misinterprets her. Arctic regions, sunny tropics, giant hills, winged winds, mighty billows, verdant vales, festive flowers, and glorious heavens, — all point to the invisible Intelligence above them. The floral apostles are hieroglyphs of Deity. Suns and planets teach grand lessons. The stars make night beautiful; and the leaflet turns naturally towards the light.”

The awakening state of mortal mind, its turning from the dream of matter, is always a humble state. Otherwise, the dream goes on and the seeming awakening is but a different phase of its jumbled illusions. Therefore it is only when mortal mind is, so to speak, humanly humble, when purely material thoughts are cast for the while aside, when speech is silent and the senses still, that the presence of the Infinite is felt, and once felt, a humility deeper than human awe comes with the thought of the All-in-all, and we begin to turn from self to Soul.

It then resolves itself into this proposition: Humility, or abasement of self, begets a sense of the presence of the Infinite, and the presence of the Infinite begets humility.

This would seem to be a sort of circular proposition, and so it is, but that circle might be likened unto the wheel of spiritual progression, which, once started, rolls safely along the strait and narrow path which leads to God. In Science and Health, p. 240, Mrs. Eddy says, “Mind is perpetual motion. Its symbol is the sphere.”

What, then, is humility, from a Christian Science standpoint? Humility means the giving up of self, self-renunciation. Jesus clearly taught that denial of self was a condition precedent to discipleship. Denial of self means first, the awakening of mortal mind; second, repentance; and third, reform. Jesus, speaking of the Prodigal Son, said, “And when he came to himself, he said, . . . I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.” Mortal mind, feeding so long on the husks of material things, at last awakens humbly to hunger for the food which will “feed the famished affections” (Science and Health, p. 17). And then the narrative goes on to say, “And he arose, and came to his father.” The first step in reform was taken, and we know how the father received him.

True humility is not necessarily manifested by woebegone looks, tears and sighs, downcast eyes and sombre garb. It is true that humanity has need still of the sackcloth, the scourge, and the cloister, but their true significance is expressed by the sackcloth of repentance, the scourge of reform, and the cloister of the inner consciousness wherein the silent prayers ascend to the Father who, hearing in secret, rewardeth openly.

True humility is a desire to do God’s will, and is manifested by letting the light of Truth shine through our consciousnesses, “lighting up each sombre shadow, with a radiance soft and clear.” Loving cheerfulness is a trademark of the Christian Scientist. A loving work of truth and hope, a smile, a clasp of the hand, does much sometimes to lighten the burdens of mortal mind, and banish its shadows.

Mrs. Eddy says in Science and. Health, p. 367, “The tender word and Christian encouragement of an invalid, pitiful patience with his fears, and the removal thereof, are better than hecatombs of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed speeches, and the doling of arguments, which are but so many parodies on legitimate Christian Science, aflame with divine Love.” It need hardly be added that true humility is not expressed by an “Uriah Heep” servility, which is only another name for hypocrisy, working out its own selfish ends.

Humility towards God means boldness towards error. In other words, no one can express true humility towards God without giving the lie to error whenever it presents itself. Jesus, at the raising of Lazarus, spoke words which should leave no doubt in the minds of those around him that he was but the channel for the divine Life which should quicken the dead. Humble before the manifestation of the Father’s power, he did not forbear to rebuke the errors of the Pharisees with such terms of scorching condemnation, that for centuries the name of “Pharisee” has been a synonym for vile hypocrisy.

Worldly wisdom is often a barrier against true humility. Pride of acquired material knowledge often builds so high and dense a wall about mortals, that the sound of the “still, small voice’ is never heard. Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health, p. 324, says, “Willingness to become as a little child, and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea.” Until this willingness is evinced, humility is wanting, and the wall of self-wisdom will never be demolished.

Jesus said, “Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Self-will is really the deification of self. Until self-will is destroyed, humility towards God is unexpressed. He who is ambitious to lead, needs to be led. He leads best who follows.

Humility begets obedience. There is but one Truth, and one pathway to understanding, and Christ has shown the way. In this age, “the longing to be good and true” of one sweet, patient, Christian woman, “has brought the light again.” By this light we are “Discerning Christ, Truth, anew on the shore of time” (Science and Health, P. 35). And we are beginning to realize that “The night is far spent,” and that “Joy cometh in the morning.” It is not strange, then, that we, as students of Christian Science should tender obedience to the Leader. Not worship, not slavish adoration, but with loving gratitude endeavor to do as she desires and counsels, for we know that she, with true humility, describes herself as “still a willing disciple at the heavenly gate, waiting for the Mind of Christ” (Science and Health, Preface, p. ix.).

Humility is the stepping-stone to Love. When self is annihilated, error no longer can hide from us the fact that the two great commandments, and there are but two, are founded upon the law of Love, love to God and love to our fellow-men. The fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man will be seen only as humility exalts us above the thought of self into the purer atmosphere of Mind, where the love-light warms and beautifies.

Joy through humility. No one can know the Father, who is Love, and still remain morose, unhappy, and despondent. To know God means the destruction of self, and self is destroyed only through humility. To the Christian Scientist, the joy which comes through abasement of self, is not a temporary emotional ecstasy which intoxicates the mortal senses with a belief of sin forgiven. It is not a shallow dream of self-righteousness. It is a Joy which is deep enough to sound the depth of error and know its nothingness, it is broad enough to reach from man to God, and cover all humanity with the cloak of charity, it is calm amid discordant surroundings, it is the “Peace of God, which passeth all understanding,” it is a foretaste of the absolute Joy which cometh with the dawn of the eternal morning. Truly, through humility, we may all “Take Joy home.” In the second chapter of Luke we read how the shepherds watching their flocks at night were sore afraid at first because of their heavenly visitants, but the angel said, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.” Then, their fear being destroyed, they were enabled to hear the message and the song of rejoicing which said. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health, p. 410 says, “Christian scientific practice begins with Christ’s keynote of harmony, ‘Be not afraid!’ ” Fear inevitably shuts out harmony.

For ages, that keynote, sounded in Judean fields, had been lost, and the song of rejoicing so faintly heard that few indeed had caught its rhythm. Now in this age, our Teacher strikes the keynote again with no uncertain sound, “Be not afraid!” And as through humility, through destruction of pride and self-will, we catch its meaning, the rhythm of the angelic song is becoming apparent to us, and we know that as “This coming is, . . . for its establishment as a permanent dispensation, to remain forever among men” (Science and Health, p. 150), so the joy-song will sing in our hearts, in our work, and in our lives always; and. if we are faithful, day by day it will grow stronger and clearer, until its harmony shall have silenced and destroyed the discords of material sense forever.