Editorial December 18, 1920 Issue

"He that hateth gifts"

Gustavus S. Paine

Understanding of divine Principle is the true gift of God to man. In fact, infinite Principle is God, and understanding is the function of the real man in the divine likeness. The continuous gift of the great Giver reflects, then, the divine nature. Continuous spiritual understanding ever satisfies because of its endless variety. Spiritual activity in accord with Principle is what constitutes understanding of Principle, and this true activity is sustained by its infallible cause. The whole process of spiritual creation, unfolding eternally in the now, is the divine Mind's process of giving. The divine Mind is immortally producing its idea or expression, and thus is ceaselessly giving all good.

That, of course, is the truth of giving. It is the manifestation of infinite Love, altogether tangible to spiritual sense, richly enjoyable in its unfoldment. Any human sense of merely material presents is, at the best, a rather sorry counterfeit of the spiritual activity which expresses divine intelligence. Some beliefs about holiday giving may seem to be better than others, because in some cases the grossest material limitations have been superseded to a certain extent by the unfoldment of the one ever-loving Principle. This subsiding of the human sense of things in the presence of infinite Mind and its idea is what improves the so-called human circumstances. In other words, the less of mortal belief there even seems to be, the more is experience improved. So the less mortal selfishness, greed, or supposed satisfaction in materiality there seems to be connected with the giving of presents, the more can one rejoice that nothing real is lost but a broader joy is gained through the understanding of Truth. Of the Christian Scientist, Mrs. Eddy writes, on pages 359 and 360 of Science and Health: "I have spiritual ideals, indestructible and glorious. When others see them as I do, in their true light and loveliness,—and know that these ideals are real and eternal because drawn from Truth,—they will find that nothing is lost, and all is won, by a right estimate of what is real."

There are certain aspects of holiday giving, or of the expectation of gifts at any time, which have long been considered reprehensible. The Hebrews looked with suspicion and reproach on the mercenary seeker of gifts. One who is subserviently awaiting presents continually can hardly be reliable. An attitude of fawning, greedy receptiveness to materiality, is not deserving of confidence. If one thinks that gifts are his rightful perquisites, and others feel bound to appease that grasping expectation, the process of giving and receiving in such circumstances is so sordid and insincere as to be of no real value whatever. It was the looking for bribes, for satiation of mortal desires, for placation of insistent demands, for matter and ever more matter, that led to the phrasing of such a proverb as, "He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live."

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