Article December 3, 1910 Issue

"BE YE THANKFUL"

CALEB H. CUSHING.

Not infrequently the student of Christian Science is deprived of the larger realization of health and harmony which is man's birthright as a child of God, through a failure to discern and correct errors that may not stand out so prominently or seem so important as others to overcome. These may be sins of omission as well as commission, and an illustration of this is our failure ofttimes to be fully appreciative of the good that we have received and are receiving today and to thank God for it.

When the New Testament writer said, "Be ye thankful," he doubtless saw that this was a Christian and scientific demand, to enable us to reap the blessings of today as well as to receive the good of tomorrow. Our Leader emphasizes this when she says (Science and Health, p. 3), "Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more." The benefit that has come to those who have taken some time each day for an enumeration of their blessings and for an individual praise and thanksgiving service to our heavenly Father for these blessings, proves conclusively that this thankfulness is requisite in order to bring out a well rounded demonstration of health, harmony, and happiness. When we start in to count our blessings, we find that, in the words of the psalmist, "they are more in number than the sand," and they make the seeming claims of evil pitifully small in comparison. This steadfast contemplation of all the present good that is ours dissipates what may seem to be evil, as light vanquishes darkness; while to reach out for some great future blessing, without due consideration and appreciation of the blessings at hand, breaks with the divine order and hinders our demonstration in Christian Science.

We are surely grateful to God for His revelation of eternal truth in the Bible, for the Christian religion founded and demonstrated by our great Exemplar, Christ Jesus, and for the scientific and practical import of these teachings set forth in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" and the other writings of Mrs. Eddy. We are grateful to every Christlike character in the past and in the present who by precept and example has helped to uplift faith and understanding to prove that "God is a very present help in trouble." We greatly appreciate our Sunday and Wednesday services, the places that divine Love has provided for these services, and for all those who faithfully cooperate in carrying them on. We are also grateful for our helpful literature that comes, monthly, weekly, and daily in the form of the Journal, Sentinel, and Monitor, and for those who edit, manage, print, and contribute to these periodicals.

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