NOW WE HAVE reports of a sanitarium where laughter is the only healing remedy. Time was when such an institution would not only have been subject to the ridicule of the community but its promoters would doubtless have come under the insanity regulations. But now that not only psychology but medical therapy is giving attention to the effect of the emotions on the health, the systematic cultivation of joy is looked upon favorably as a healing agent.
"A glad heart maketh a cheerful countenance;
But by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken."
Solomon or some other wise author of Proverbs wrote that thousands of years ago, and it is good doctrine today. The historical records of the race go back about six thousand years, and it is found
that people have changed very little in their dominant characteristics during that time. Solomon, reputed the wisest man of his age, rendered his judgments from the testimony of the emotions rather than the facts as they were given in his court. The Bible tells of his appeal to the love of the two women who claimed the same infant as their child, calling for a sword to divide it so that each woman might receive half. The real mother begged that the sword should not be used, and of course the case was decided in her favor.
Legend says that Solomon amazed the Queen of Sheba by his quick solution of problems that she proposed. She dressed a group of boys and girls in exactly the same clothes and demanded that he tell the sex of each. He ordered basins of water for them to wash their hands in. The boys all plunged their hands in the water and got sodden cuffs, while the girls carefully rolled up their sleeves. Then a combination of real and artificial flowers were brought in; the queen demanded that Solomon point out the difference. He sent for a swarm of bees and readily made a decision. The queen was so pleased with Solomon's wisdom that she made him a love offering equal to three hundred and sixty thousand dollars.
In our modern practice of spiritual healing we find sadness and sorrow to be the cause of many physical ills. We also find that happiness is natural to man and that he can release it from his inner life through an understanding of Truth.
The study of the spiritual side of life awakens in mind, and even in body, emotions that convince one of the reality and eternal continuity of life, regardless of the changes that take place in outer manifestation.
Isaiah had a consciousness of this when he wrote in the 35th chapter of his book: "And the ransomed of Jehovah shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."
Zion represents spiritual peace, a peace that comes to those who attain an understanding and consciousness of Spirit and its activities in the soul.
Sorrow used to be considered a virtue among religious people, but this notion is being dissolved among the enlightened. Death has been the greatest source of sorrow, but evidence that the soul continues to live after it leaves the body is being produced from so many sources that the sense of separation is being rapidly removed, and many people now believe that we continue to exist as thinking entities whether in the body or out of the body.
Of all men who have lived on earth Jesus understood best the joy of the spiritual life, and He had the power of imparting that joy.
"He shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy." "These things have I spoken unto you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full."
