Editorial December 3, 1910 Issue

"FORGET NOT ALL HIS BENEFITS"

Annie M. Knott

All through the Old Testament we find warnings against forgetfulness of the divine mercy and goodness, in evidence that this is a marked tendency on the part of mortals, who, however, seem to remember very vividly not only all the ills which they have experienced, but also those of which they have heard. How often do we hear people reciting a tale of the ailments from which they were said to have suffered in infancy, said tale having been handed down in the family as if it were some precious heirloom, the narrators quite unconscious that when the storehouse of memory is filled with unhealthful thoughts there can be very little room left for the real things of life, the manifestations of divine Love and goodness which are surely abundant if only we preserve the records as precious treasures, for we are told that God "keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations."

The Israelites were bidden to tell their children of their many deliverances, and to remember the wonderful spiritual lessons which were taught them during their long wilderness journeyings, when they were forced to learn through hard privations "that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." That this lesson was not forgotten, but was handed down from one generation to another, we discover in reading the wonderful story of the Master's temptation in the wilderness, where he vanquished the arguments and assaults of evil with a declaration of this vital truth, that man's life does not come from matter, but from Spirit, God, and that his bread is the divine Word "which giveth life unto the world."

In the 103d Psalm we have a glorious record of divine blessings which we cannot afford to forget. The psalmist says, "Forget not all his benefits," and then he proceeds to tell us what they are. The forgiveness of sin and the healing of disease come first; then we are told of life redeemed from destruction, so that the grave is no longer its goal; then we read, "Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." These progressive steps will be understood by every one who comes into Christian Science, and they are sometimes taken very quickly. That Truth rights all the wrongs of mortal existence we are further assured in the declaration, "The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed;" and where one is burdened with a mournful sense of past errors, there comes the ringing assurance, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us." Nor is this all—it is blessing upon blessing, benefit upon benefit, if only we, do not "forget" our blessings!

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