Article May 15, 1909 Issue

THANKFULNESS

A. B. FICHTER

The expressions of gratitude so frequently heard at our testimonial meetings are perhaps, for outsiders, the most unusual part of the Christian Science services. It is quite a wonderful experience to find a set of people who joyfully, like children, show and share with others their good things, testify to the receiving of great benefits, and express their gratitude, sometimes so fervently that the visitor is astonished. But it is not so strange after all that Christian Scientists should be grateful, because the benefits they have received are in many instances equal to those which the contemporaries of Jesus experienced and enjoyed, and which in ordinary parlance would be called miracles. The remembrance of such a deliverance would surely bring the beneficiary to his feet, over and over again, "in wonder, love, and praise."

Besides many wonderful physical healings, however, Christian Scientists have more vital reasons for being grateful. Invariably they testify to the spiritual uplifting which the new light on the Scriptures has wrought in their hearts; where formerly they could only by a suppression of natural impulses bring themselves to love and worship an inscrutable Deity, they have now learned to plead constantly the allness of Love, and in that way to prove to their entire satisfaction the truth and reliability of the Bible.

Every uplifting thought that blesses our brother blesses us, and should make us grateful. Every good thing that comes to another proves to us anew the healing truth and the truth of healing, and it makes us thankful. The lines upon lines of enlightened thought from the pens of consecrated workers, and the grateful acknowledgment of blessings received, which fill our literature, increase our gratitude, because through the strength of others we are strengthened and encouraged to increased activity and love. Christian Scientists should sometimes look back to where they were before the truth found them,—what used to be their daily experiences, what problems, what perplexities, what inharmony, what self-pity and self-condemnation,—and in so doing they would find renewed reasons for fervent gratitude.

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LOVE AND LIGHT
May 15, 1909
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