Article May 23, 1925 Issue

"A man's gift"

CECILE B. HYDELOFF

Solomon's declaration, "A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men," is as true to-day as ever it was. But its meaning has been so obscured that many have come to think of it as referring to the power of human will and ability to bring one before public audience. Certainly in this sense Solomon's wisdom would prove faulty; for human ability is not always attended with recognition; and in many instances men labor on in obscurity and discouraged toil without ever discovering the talent that should unfold its corresponding recompense. Schools of success, courses in psychology, all promising to bring ability to light and to instruct men in its proper usage, are flooding the country; books on the power of human will come in increasing number from the printing presses, but men still continue to grope blindly, vainly seeking channels of right activity.

If human will and planning have failed to disclose the nature of man's gift, where, then, shall we turn for enlightenment? Where but to Christian Science, which reveals man's real nature and talents? In the light of this revelation, man is not a helpless mortal, limited by environment or education, and blown about by the winds of chance. He is the child of God, the unchanging reflection of the all-wise Father, to whom he looks for guidance and direction, secure in the certainty of God's omnipotence. As the manifest reflection of the divine Mind, man's reason for existence is that he may freely reflect the gifts of God. Now this Mind gives to man intelligence and wisdom, which are humanly expressed in right thinking and true ability. To find one's talent, then, and to know how to use it, is not to look to systems of human thinking and planning, but to seek earnestly and prayerfully, in the way pointed out by the Master, a true understanding of God and of man's relation to Him. As men look to this divine source, recognizing spiritual cause and effect only, they will prove that right activity has nothing to do with human will, but is allied with God alone.

In patient obedience to this divine Principle there is no struggle, no discouragement or failure; no besetting obstacles or disappointed hopes attend one's efforts; but, rather, there is a deep joy, a strong peace, an abiding consciousness of right doing, which brings with it a full and abundant reward. Working step by step, progressing always to a larger, more impersonal concept of God, brings "signs following" in daily experience. The narrow confines of mortal thought give way to freer mental activity and a wider horizon; the restrictions and limitations of matter give place to vast opportunities to prove the allness of good and the nothingness of evil. And so, like rusty, worn chains, the links of human thought drop away, one by one, until men recognize themselves unshackled by error, free to use man's gift from God.

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