Editorial November 20, 1926 Issue

"Father, I thank thee"

Ella W. Hoag

When Jesus was about to make his third recorded demonstration in proof that life is deathless, he prefaced the words of authority with which he was to call Lazarus from the tomb with that prayer which has become so especially familiar and dear to all Christian Scientists. When he said: "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always," Jesus showed confidence in God's inevitable answer to righteous prayer, which is one of the greatest reasons for thankfulness that Christians of whatever name can possess; for what can bring into any one's experience greater gratitude than to know that God's answer to true prayer is assured even before the asking? John in his first epistle emphasizes and clarifies this assurance when he writes, "This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him."

Since Christian Science teaches that all good is of God, it then necessarily follows that to become conscious of good one must ask it of God; and to emulate Jesus' example, such asking must be done in deepest gratitude to God and in profoundest expectancy of receiving all good from Him. To know that all good may become ours consciously, in just the degree that with a thankful heart we ask for that which is according to God's good will, is a sufficient cause to keep thought continually overflowing with thankfulness. To keep this truth in sight is to do away with all dolor and discouragement, with all complaining and bitterness. It is also to open the door to the privilege and power of demonstrating one's own reflection of divine good itself; it is the entrance to the ability to demonstrate perfectly the healing power of Christian Science.

Thanksgiving as defined in Christian Science must therefore always be based on the recognition that all real good originates in God, belongs to God, remains forever in God—indeed, is very God Himself! One therefore will never be truly conscious of any good unless he is simultaneously conscious of a sense of gratitude to God. How anomalous to imagine for an instant that one could know good and not have his heart filled with thankfulness! No true gratitude, therefore, can ever be felt which is not associated with the recognition of God, good; the consciousness of good and the consciousness of gratitude must forever be inseparable.

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