Article March 19, 1921 Issue

Grace and Gratitude

CLARKE F. HUNN

In expressing the spiritual sense of the Lord's Prayer in the first chapter of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy gives us a remarkable interpretation of the petition, "Give us this day our daily bread." In the parallel to this on page 17 she writes, "Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections." This commonest entreaty of mankind for sustenance, for strength in what we are wont to call the struggle for existence, is epitomized and illumined in this interpretation, which defies material belief with the definite implication that not only is the grace of God our daily bread, but it is indeed that food for which all mankind is starving. Moreover, since God is All and man is His true reflection, as we are taught and as we prove in Christian Science, then grace is not something to be vainly sought, or that is arbitrarily awarded to a chosen few. It is ours already, an attribute of Principle, reflected by man inevitably, impartially, and universally.

This daily bread of grace is perhaps best expressed to the thought of many Christian Scientists by the more common word "gratitude." Grace is defined as "the mercy of God," and our reflection of the infinite mercy is measured by our growth in understanding, the at-one-ment with the Father for which we daily strive. No word defines better than does gratitude the condition of thought that must initiate and accompany the unfoldment of omnipotent good, for it denotes no lip service nor empty tithe, but the humbling and inspiring turning to the one God in the growing understanding of divine sonship.

The phrase that instinctively rises to the lips of the student of Christian Science is ever, "I am so grateful!" Once uttered in glad spontaneity, however, it is a phrase to take with us into the quiet sanctuary of our prayers, for fervent reconsideration. There, as we count over again the blessings received and as we glimpse anew the untouched treasures whose Open sesame! is, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine;" as we strive for the clear vision of the inheritance of the children of God, the tremendous meaning of true gratitude dawns upon the thought. Gratitude becomes no longer a duty but a privilege, and the former somewhat overconfident, unthinking "I am so grateful" seeks a more reserved expression in the unvoiced prayer that the divine will be done. It becomes apparent that no belittling, downward-weighted thought or action can express this gratitude or dwell beside it. First must the tyranny of mortality be renounced, and the fact of man's spiritual origin and entity be earnestly realized.

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