Editorial August 29, 1908 Issue

GRATITUDE AND COMPASSION

John B. Willis

In reading the Psalms, and especially those portions which were more frequently used in the temple service, one is impressed with the earnestness with which the Christian believer is enjoined to maintain a spirit of gratitude and rejoicing. The ground of this reiterated appeal is the revelation of the greatness of God, the wonder of His works, and the peculiar favor conferred upon those who are called to be His chosen people. The New Testament writers dwell upon the love of God, revealed in Christ Jesus, and emphasize the Christian's call to thankfulness not only in view of the exalted privileges pertaining to Christian discipleship, but in view of the significance of this attitude of heart to the Christian's overcoming, his adequacy to life's problems and duty's demands. Paul presses the point so far as to insist that we rejoice even in tribulations, and he cites his own example as proof of such a possibility.

Every thoughtful Christian Scientist speedily realizes that the spirit of gratitude is the least heart-return he should make to God, to the great Wayshower, and to his inspired Teacher, the Leader of the Christian Science movement, for the illumination and peace which have come to him; more than this, he knows that it is healing, that it is the mental mood par excellence which fits him to meet and master human experiences. He finds that to have a deep and abiding sense of gratitude is to realize his true poise and protection. In the freedom from doubt and depression, the forgetfulness of selfish ends, the responsiveness to duty, and the quietness of heart thus attained, he wholly escapes the assault of many an old enemy, and finds himself best equipped to vanquish those that still appear. Furthermore, the gain in all that pertains to his association with others is no less marked, for gratitude blossoms in that cheeriness, buoyancy, courage, kindness, and generosity which make one welcome to every circle and winsome to every heart.

Gratitude's closest companion is compassion, the "charity" that gives us the poise respecting our neighbor's problem, which gratitude yields us respecting our own. Compassion is the fragrance of a sense of brotherhood, it is the impulse of the Christ, it is Love's hand stretched out to shelter and to save. Compassion is mindful of the contrast, ofttimes, between one's own freedom and another's bondage, one's own rich opportunities and another's restricted life. Springing from the gratitude in one's own heart, compassion awakens gratitude in the hearts of others, and hence it makes most fitting answer to the world's deep distress and unmeasured need, for it is manifestly considerate of the inherited limitations of false belief and false education, the ignorance that is ever thwarting good intention. It is mindful also of circumstance, and reserves judgment. It says, "Neither do I condemn thee." Compassion remembers the long, long rule of injustice among men, and it would give every one a fair chance, at least, before classifying his offense.

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