Article September 2, 1911 Issue

THE CLOSED HAND

LOUISE KNIGHT WHEATLEY.

In an article recently published in the Sentinel, there appeared this sentence: "The closed hand cannot receive." The simple statement, almost epigrammatic in its terseness, lingered in the memory of at least one reader, and said itself over and over in her heart as she went about her daily work. "The closed hand cannot receive." And why not? She had only to hold out her own hand, tightly closed, to understand. Some one might have been offering her the price of a king's ransom, and yet so long as those fingers maintained their rigid clasp she could not have received it. Let her open her hand, however, and hold it out, palm upward, as in the act of giving, and that very change of attitude, simple though it was, placed her at once in a position to receive.

As she pondered these things a picture which hangs in a certain dearly-loved reading-room flashed into her memory. It represents a group of persons standing on a lawn listening to a woman who has evidently stepped out upon a low balcony to address them. The woman is Mrs. Eddy. She stands looking out upon that sea of upturned faces, a slender figure silhouetted against the sky, the face in shadow, but what a world of eloquence there is in those outstretched hands! And the palms are upturned. Giving, giving, always giving,—and since the days of Jesus of Nazareth no one has ever received in such abundance. Yet is it not only in accord with an immutable law that she who gave so much should receive in like manner? Jesus himself said, "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."

Does the storehouse sometimes seem strangely empty, O troubled heart? Do we sometimes find ourselves thinking that Christian Science is not doing as much for us as it should; that we are not getting as much out of it as we ought, and wonder why we do not receive more? Before becoming unduly disturbed over this, suppose we try the experiment of taking an entirely different point of view. Instead of asking, "What is Christian Science doing for me?" suppose we ask ourselves, "What am I doing for Christian Science?" Instead of saying, "I am not getting as much as I ought," suppose we say, "Am I giving as much as I can?" Instead of saying, "I wonder why I do not receive more?" suppose we say, "Am I making the most of what I have?"

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