Editorial February 27, 1915 Issue

Getting and Giving

Annie M. Knott

It would be well for all of us to analyze carefully each morning our motives and desires, in order that the day may be enriched by real spiritual gain. It is almost startling to think of the extent to which prayers are shaped by a desire to get all that we can from God! It may be health, strength, or temporal supply, or the desire may be a sincere one for personal betterment; but after all, this means getting rather than giving. Well does Mrs. Eddy say, "No loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be molded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds" (Science and Health, p. 1). It is well to remember here that the needed change should come in our desires, as come it must if we are advancing spiritually and leaving behind us the grasping tendencies of mortal mind.

Some one contrasts in a very telling way the character of Christ Jesus and that of the average mortal, in these words: "We take, he gave; self-preservation is the first law of our lives, his life was all self-sacrifice; we focus all rays like a sun-glass, he shone upon all like the sun." From this viewpoint we may indeed ask ourselves very earnestly what our real desire is when we declare the truth in a Christian Science prayer. If it is that we may shine upon all we meet each day with the reflected radiance of Truth and Love, we shall miss no blessing for ourselves. We shall in this way most surely find preservation and protection, and no matter what the mortal seeming, we shall prove true the Master's words, "Your joy no man taketh from you." We shall also find, in ways hitherto unperceived, opportunities to bless others, to share our joy with them,—our strength, our courage, our hope,—and we shall do it in such a way that they will not become mere dependents upon us, but themselves distributers of the divine bounty.

Our Master said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive," and in these words, which were an echo of his own life, we are clearly shown how the greatest blessedness is to be realized. Some one may ask if the giving here indicated is to be only along spiritual lines. To this it may be answered that all true giving is spiritual; that it springs from the inspiration of Love, even though it reaches humanity through such symbols as a cup of cold water, or the loaves which fed the five thousand in the wilderness, or if it comes in the more direct way of the healing practised, taught, and enjoined upon his followers by Christ Jesus.

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