Article May 30, 1914 Issue

Gratitude

ABBY BEECHER ROBERTS

Gratitude has long been considered a passive virtue, and one that, as expressed among mortals, often presupposes superiority in the recipient and inferiority in the giver. In ordinary human intercourse, gratitude has too small a place, even as a spoken word. As an active motive-power, its expression often seems so rare as to cause surprised comment when discovered, and it has not seldom been the lot of those who have been moved to grateful action, to find their motives misconstrued and subjected to suspicion.

In Christian Science we learn the virtue of gratitude as an active force leavening every act of life. It is the transmission of good received, one of the "channels for the streams of love" (Hymnal, p. 89) which broaden with use, and irrigate the plain of daily living so that every hour blooms into fragrance and ripens into seed for increase. Gratitude quickens into joyous expression by word and deed, the happiness that comes to every student and seeker after Truth and causes all to wish to share in common the blessedness of each thought of Love perceived by any one. Gratitude upholds our first steps along the way. It protects our demonstrations of Truth with humility, incities us to guard thought and action so that no selfishness or inertia may creep in to dim our sense of what is due the cause of Christian Science and the workers for it. It is gratitude that fills our churches, furnishes material for our periodicals and spreads them broadcast over the face of the earth. It is gratitude that inspires our readers, musicians, directors, and congregations to uphold one another's work in honor and love.

The gratitude of each church-member, expressed, builds our beautiful church edifices, maintains our reading-rooms, and supports enthusiastically each separate church organization as a branch of The Mother Church. In true gratitude there is no jealousy or envy to retard the growth of an individual or an organization, no exaltation of personality, no personal condemnation. Attention to one's own problem, and love for all coworkers, lead the honest student to the fullest sense of thankfulness to God for His loving-kindness to His children, and this removes all sense of jealousy toward those who manifest superior wisdom, foresight, decision, comprehension, or demonstration, and enables one to share the blessing of their good work.

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