Editorial November 22, 1913 Issue

Thankful-giving

John B. Willis

The return of "Thanksgiving" is sure to prompt the most of us to think, rather more definitely and enumeratively than we are wont, of blessings in hand which render our celebration of this event not only a privilege but a duty. The long list of our possessions and pleasures, as compared with those of the many, can but beget the realization that we have abundant occasion for gratitude and for the devotion of something of our good to the making of the less favored more comfortable and happy. All this is well, and yet a little thought regarding the matter impresses one that such a sense is after all rather commonplace and unworthy; that it fails to enter into and express that spirit of praise which animated and impelled the writer of the one hundred and third psalm. We begin to see that the true thanksgiving is very much nobler, finer, more engaging and more significant to one's spiritual life and growth.

Heaven's bounties being "new every morning," it is apparent that our thanksgiving, like our prayer, should become a habitual attitude, the loving and songful expression of a daily delight "in the Lord," our happiness in doing good, "his will." Such an attitude is both a door of disclosure and a point of access through which the finest things are able to reach us, and its practical significance has been signally illustrated in the instance of our Leader, to whose responsiveness to Truth we are all supremely indebted. This was the explanation of her illumination and her efficiency. She showed us that the true thanksgiving is the activity of an affection which is both boundless and perennial.

How delicately yet effectively Jesus emphasized this in those appealing reiterations to Peter, "Feed my sheep," "Feed my lambs." The "love of Christ" which constrained St. Paul and St. Francis in their splendidly unselfish living, — this and this alone speaks for that genuine sense of indebtedness which is all-inclusive, everywhere radiant, and continuous. This is one of the greatest vantages gained by the student of Christian Science. He can but have learned, as did the Master's immediate disciples, that "Love is reflected in love" (Science and Health, p. 17). When the psalmist wondered in his gratitude what he could "render unto the Lord for all his benefits," he bethought him at once of "the cup of salvation," Love's healing gift of truth, and this is the sweetest discovery, the most inspiring demonstration that can come to any one of us, namely, that we may bear this same cup to the famishing sufferers who have found no satisfying springs in all the desert-way of past experience, and thus make fitting return to God for "all his benefits."

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Among the Churches