Article March 27, 1920 Issue

"The garment of praise"

BERTHA A. COOPER

We read in the Bible of exchanging "the spirit of heaviness" for "the garment of praise." This spirit of heaviness possesses a multitude of people and causes untold suffering, and right here in the Bible we have the remedy. Let us learn what it is and how to use it in order that mankind may be free from this curse. There are those in the world to-day who, by cultivating the habit of gratitude, have found heaven right here, as Jesus promised of old; but sometimes we hear people say: I am truly grateful for all that Christian Science has done for me, and yet I cannot seem to grow as I should. I cannot find the illumination and make the demonstration that I would.

A number of years ago an earnest student of Christian Science seemed to be passing through severe trials and experiences, and although she worked and studied hard, she could not shake off the heaviness and find healing for a physical condition which had appeared during this trouble. One night she drove to hear a Christian Science lecture given in a neighboring state. The speaker told how he had spiritualized his thought in Christian Science and how he had received his healing. He had followed the leading in this verse in Proverbs, "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths," and praised God from morning until night for every tiny or large experience of good that came to him. He did this day after day, until he found his thought completely changed, and he was healed. From that hour, the student referred to awoke to her new privilege in Christian Science of counting her blessings. First she counted only those in sight, those which had been manifested,—and they were many. Even doing this blessed her greatly, and she found good was being so magnified in her thought that she was losing the sense of having a problem; then as time went on she learned to be deeply grateful and to praise God for the unseen things,—for divine Life, Love, Truth, Spirit, joy, strength, light, and gratitude, and of course this idea unfolded in a boundless way. She found her thought more joyful, her step lighter, the diseased condition destroyed, and her problem solved, at least so far as she was concerned.

Along the years, as other problems confronted her in Christian Science, particularly those which pertained to her own life, she found them solved often by turning to God in gratitude. She well remembers one morning being awakened very early by a sense of great suffering. She first tried to meet the condition by reading and then by treatment, but feeling no change after an hour and a half she arose, took pencil and paper, and, as she had done many times before, commenced to write down the reasons for praising God for His goodness. When finally she had counted over her many blessings that she had given thanks for, she found her thought so uplifted that every bit of the suffering was gone. In his glorious psalms David wrote of the wonderful things that praise accomplishes; so let us all prepare to wear this beautiful "garment of praise," not only that we may find the promised joy and solve our problems, but that we may go out in the world wearing this garment of light so that it may help to destroy the works of darkness. We know that "love is the fulfilling of the law," and gratitude is the magnifying of love so that the law can be fulfilled in our lives, and our Leader gives us a definite rule for praise when she says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 106), "So live, that your lives attest your sincerity and resound His praise."

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

"The garment of praise"

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access