Editorial October 19, 1918 Issue

To Whom Gratitude Is Due

William D. McCrackan

Nations as well as individuals must learn to express gratitude. Absence of gratitude implies absence of that conviction of having received which bases gratitude. To ignore benefactions argues ignorance of the benefactions themselves. No one can be truly grateful who does not know he has received a gift. The stronger the mental certainty of having received, the deeper the gratitude. It is characteristic of the American Expeditionary force in France that it is grateful to those brothers in arms who have held the lines so strongly while that force was organizing. It is reported that the members of that force are teachable and ask to be instructed by their veteran allies. It should be added also that it is grateful for the heroic stand taken by those who have been willing to lay down their lives that all nations might be free.

Christian Science reveals the true metaphysical inwardness of gratitude. Mrs. Eddy has shown the way to be really grateful in the following words in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 3): "Gratitude is much more than a verbal expression of thanks. Action expresses more gratitude than speech." A Godlike life is a life expression of gratitude, because it performs the works of God. Jesus was constantly giving thanks to God. "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me," he exclaimed as he raised Lazarus from the dead. Let all true believers in God learn to have the same gratitude in them which was also in Christ Jesus.

Whoever sees the transports loaded and lined with khaki-clad troops leaving the ports of the United States on their mission of liberty must be grateful that the high seas have been protected by the self-sacrificing British fleet. Before the world war began wise men had already foretold that the control of the sea would ultimately mean the control of the world. At that time the freedom of the seas was assured to all mankind by the benevolent policing of that fleet which with the friendly cooperation of the United States had swept the seas of piracy and slave traffic. It maintained free ports in both hemispheres. Unfortunately, under the protection of this world-wide freedom of the seas a new and unsuspected type of piracy and slave traffic was being prepared. Taking advantage of the security of the seas and of the great trade routes a selfish nation, using the weapons of treachery against its benefactors and backed by hypnotism, was secretly planning to make the high seas unsafe except for itself and its subjects.

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