Article August 6, 1910 Issue

GRATITUDE

ADA BEERS FOSTER.

The regenerated heart is of necessity a grateful heart. As one is purged, little by little, of the false beliefs which have enslaved, and a corresponding degree of freedom is attained, an ever-increasing measure of gratitude pervades the mentality thus emerging from the mists of error into the sunlight of eternal Truth.

The one who is earnest and loyal knows well the gratitude expressed by tears, rather than words, as the marvelous goodness of God is unfolded. In unknown ways, at unexpected times and places, under stern stress and bitter sorrow, Love's behests awaken mankind from these illusions of mortal sense by the inspiration of gratitude,—gratitude for the healing of sorrow; for every mistake corrected; for every error destroyed; for every false belief eliminated; for every sin forgiven, because forsaken; for every illuminated sense of Truth's appearing in individual consciousness. The joy of redemption floods thought with the spirit of praise, of love, of genuine humility. Purer desires and holier ambitions wait upon the recognition in human thought of man as the loved son of the ever loving Father-Mother God, and pure peace is augmented by the ever grateful consciousness that "Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals" (Science and Health, p. 13).

Gratitude is inspirational. It brings the hidden things of God to light in seemingly burdened human hearts. It inspires a childlike faith in our heavenly Father, enabling us to be obedient "unto the heavenly vision," even when paralleling in individual experience the doubts and fears of the children of Israel,—the Red Sea in front of them, inaccessible rocky ramparts on either hand, and the pursuing Egyptians. They, in obedience to the divine command, went forward, and found, as do we, a safe path through "the dark ebbing and flowing tides of human fear" (Ibid., p. 566). On the "other side of the flood" they sang their hymn of grateful praise, even as it is being sung around the world today by countless thousands who have been healed in Christian Science.

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