Article October 2, 1920 Issue

Gratitude

EVA F. HOVEY

In Old Testament times a gift was offered as a mere expression of politeness, or with the expectation in return of favor or protection,—as Jacob's gift to his brother Esau. Also, a gift was given when consulting a prophet or oracle. Doubtless it was the general belief that a gift to God operated in the same manner as one to an earthly ruler.

David's more spiritual insight realized that the favor of the Lord did not depend upon material gifts, and Isaiah tells us, "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land." In the New Testament, as pointed out in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, we find that many of its usages of the word gift are connected with God's gifts to men: His Son, Life, the Holy Spirit, as well as that free gift of grace which Paul writes of in the inspiring fifth chapter of Romans.

No more wonderful gift has been given to mankind than the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. Through the study of this book many thousands of suffering humanity have been healed. It is a veritable key to the Scriptures, unlocking to all the treasures of the Bible, the promises of which are seen to be for each and all now, proving the ever presence of the living Christ, Truth, as our Savior promised, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Our textbook is the outcome of Mrs. Eddy's spiritual understanding of the motherhood as well as the fatherhood of God. Love and duty to God and mankind caused her to give to the world this sacred gift, teaching, as she tells us in Science and Health (p. 496), "the rule of healing, based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, overlying, and encompassing all true being." The entire sentence reads: "Hold perpetually this thought,—that it is the spiritual idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing, based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, overlying, and encompassing all true being."

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