Editorial April 8, 1916 Issue

Measuring Our Gratitude

Archibald McLellan

In the parable of the good Samaritan, whereby Jesus answered the lawyer's question as to whom he should regard as his neighbor, the great Teacher apparently sought to break down the narrow human sense which would limit one's benefactions to his family and more intimate acquaintances. Instead the lawyer was shown so clearly that he who is animated by true love for his neighbor will not withhold the helping hand from even one who has fallen by the wayside, that when the Master asked which of the three who had seen the man as he lay bruised and beaten in the dust, had measured up to the test, he could answer without hesitation, "He that showed mercy on him." It is then that we have the gracious conclusion which relates the parable to present-day needs: "Go, and do thou likewise."

Seldom is a testimony of healing in Christian Science given which does not contain an expression of gratitude for deliverance, first of all to God, "from whom all blessings flow," and then to the one who was privileged to be the channel through which the divine ever-presence of good has again been made known to mankind. When the waves of sorrow, or suffering, or sin are breaking over us, when in extremity we cry out to the living God for deliverance, we are ready to promise anything,—"all that a man hath will he give for his life," the tempter declared. What shall be the measure of our gratitude, then, when through that same infinite goodness we are lifted out of the depths of our distresses and our feet placed on the firm ground of understanding? Is it not summed up, both for the man by the wayside and for him who passing by has ministered to his need, in that brief command, "Do thou likewise"? Delivered or delivering we are under the same rule: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."

In one brief sentence Mrs. Eddy gives us a rule of measurement whereby we may test the genuineness of our gratitude for deliverance from sickness or sin. In that wonderful chapter on Prayer she says (Science and Health, p. 3), "Action expresses more gratitude than speech." It is not enough to protest we are grateful for the measure of infinite goodness that has been manifested to us, but we must share that goodness with another. We must go out into the highways and byways with the healing word, gathering in the sick and the sinning till not even one of the least of Christ's little ones is left without the shelter of our Father's house.

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