Editorial November 20, 1926 Issue

On the Giving of Thanks

Albert F. Gilmore

An inspiring example of the attitude of thankfulness to God in which Christ Jesus constantly abode is found in the story of the feeding of the multitude as recorded in the Gospel of Mark. So accustomed was the Master to recognize God as the source of being, as the fountain from which flows an infinite stream of good to bless and heal mankind; so sure was he that substance is Spirit, indestructible, without limitation, and ever at hand, and that the real man is constantly supplied with all of divine good; and so confident was he of God's beneficence, that in the presence of the multitude he was to feed, even before the demonstration was manifest, he lifted his voice in prayer and thanksgiving to the infinite Father, who always heard his petitions and always answered them.

"So they did eat, and were filled," runs the Gospel narrative. "And they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets," even though about four thousand had been fed, and the initial supply had been but seven loaves and a few small fishes. What a sure sense of the Master's intimate relationship with God may be drawn from the experience! Good alone is present and unlimited; evil, calling itself want, has no reality. God, eternal Spirit, is All-in-all, infinite substance! Therefore, the appearance which presents itself as lack is but a falsity, a phantasm, without truth or entity. Realization of this great fact could scarcely fail to elicit the Master's sincere expression of thanks.

Mrs. Eddy likewise has set before the world the scientific necessity for maintaining the mental attitude of thanksgiving. She makes very clear, however, that our thanks should spring from a spontaneous glow of gratitude for the revelation of the true nature of God; for she writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 3): "If we are ungrateful for Life, Truth, and Love, and yet return thanks to God for all blessings, we are insincere and incur the sharp censure our Master pronounces on hypocrites." And she closes the paragraph thus: "While the heart is far from divine Truth and Love, we cannot conceal the ingratitude of barren lives."

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Editorial
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November 20, 1926
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