Editorial November 20, 1920 ISSUE

Thanksgiving

Frederick Dixon

Thanksgiving is the expression of men's discernment of something better than themselves. In its earliest inception it was this. Even if the object on which the thanks were bestowed was some stock or stone, that stock or stone stood merely as the symbol of an idea which the materiality of the human mind found it impossible to explain otherwise. Gradually, however, as the carnal mind gave way more and more to the inroads of Truth, thanksgiving assumed a higher form, until its true spiritual nature was made manifest to humanity in the teaching of Jesus the Christ. "The divine nature," as Mrs. Eddy says so wonderfully, on page 259 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," "was best expressed in Christ Jesus, who threw upon mortals the truer reflection of God and lifted their lives higher than their poor thought-models would allow,—thoughts which presented man as fallen, sick, sinning, and dying."

Thanksgiving, then, should be to men just as instant as prayer. That is to say, it should accompany prayer as the constant desire of the human race. Still, inasmuch as men persist, for the most part, in believing themselves to be bound by the limitations of the flesh, it has been their habit always to set apart certain days or festivals for the special acknowledgment of the love of God. Such a habit, of course, has its dangers. For one thing, these festivals are apt to become mechanical. Thus divine service has fallen from its high estate of the perpetual effort to be obedient to Principle, to that of a weekly routine; and in the same way festivals, such as Christmas Day and Easter, have become rather feast days and holidays than days of special significance in the Christian calendar of worship. Consequently, it is the duty of every one who understands anything of the demands of Principle to assist in demonstrating the true meaning of Thanksgiving, which is, indeed, the recognition of the fact that, as the image and likeness of Principle, man owes everything he has to Principle. For is it not the existence of Principle which, as the writer of the book of Job so wonderfully said, bringeth forth Mazzaroth in his season, and guideth Arcturus with his sons? "We tread on forces," Mrs. Eddy writes, on page 124 of Science and Health. "Withdraw them, and creation must collapse. Human knowledge calls them forces of matter; but divine Science declares that they belong wholly to divine Mind, are inherent in this Mind, and so restores them to their rightful home and classification."

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