Editorial November 30, 1907 Issue

GRATITUDE

Annie M. Knott

At the present time, when so much is being said respecting our great indebtedness for the truth made known to us as Christian Science, some profound lessons may be learned by tracing in the Gospels the record of what was done—not said—by those who partook of the blessings of truth through Jesus' ministry. Luke tells us in this connection that at the last supper Jesus asked his disciples. who had abandoned their material vocations and went from place to place, preaching the gospel and healing the sick, "When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing."

From this we have a hint of the gratitude and generosity of those who were healed at that time. We read of a band of noble women who had been healed and who left their homes and went about with the great Teacher, ministering to him of their substance. John tells us of a woman who poured "a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly," upon the feet of the beloved Master, and he also says that after the crucifixion Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus not only braved the rage of the priests and rulers in seeking to give the body of Jesus an honored burial, but they brought for this purpose costly spices, "about an hundred pound weight. "

According to contemporary writers this offering of love and gratitude was of incalculable value, and marks a sharp contrast with the miserable bribe of Judas, who for the sake of "thirty pieces" (sixteen dollars and ninety cents) betrayed his Master and went to a dishonored grave. While it is true that the princely offering of Joseph and Nicodemus came very late, yet it bespeaks a whole-hearted consecration to the cause of Truth, and that, too, at an hour when it seemed as if it were forever lost. It should therefore speak loudly to us when material sense with its narrowing tendencies would bid us withhold our gifts when they are needed to advance the cause of Truth to-day, in order to bring the Christ-healing within the reach of all who are in bondage to the belief in sin, sickness, and death.

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