Article January 15, 1921 Issue

Givers and Getters

GEOFFREY HAMLYN

If any one will cast a glance round his acquaintances and friends he will soon appreciate the fact that they may be divided into two main classes—those who give and those who receive. Not that some will only receive and some only give; practically all must give to some extent as well as receive, but it will be found that some are constantly giving, whilst others are as constantly receiving, or rather taking.

What constitutes the "taking" thought? Is it not selfishness and self-indulgence based on a sense of limitation? And is not a sense of limitation based on a belief in life, truth, intelligence, and substance in matter? The materialist is naturally acquisitive. Believing that whatever is desirable must consist of matter in some shape or form, and that there is only a certain amount of matter available, it becomes his business to acquire as much as possible of the particular form of matter which he covets, and to acquire it by fair means if he can, and failing this, by fraud, or else by force. The fact is that the habitual getter, by which is meant the habitual taker, is a thorough-paced materialist and that his acquisitiveness will yield to the giving spirit only in the proportion that matter ceases to attract, and thus the still, small voice of divine Love is able to be heard, since Love asks only to give, not to get; for Love knows well that it has all.

It is among the many triumphs of Christian Science that it has turned countless thousands of getters into givers. People who were formerly always expecting if not actually demanding others' help and sympathy have been led to seek to help and to extend their own practical sympathy to others. The former selfish invalid, absorbed in his or her well-being, is led to forget this in the prospect of laboring for others out of a loving desire to help. Thus the habitual getter becomes the habitual giver, and "Ich dien" (I serve), the motto of the heir to the British throne, becomes that of the Christian Scientist. For one only gets as one is prepared to give, and thus every giver himself becomes a receiver of good. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness," said Jesus; "and all these things shall be added unto you,"—a truth which Mrs. Eddy has expressed in different words in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," on page 494, "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need."

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