Gratitude for God's Glory

ELLA W. HOAG

"GOD'S glory is a wond'rous thing,
Most strange in all its ways,
And of all things on earth, least like
What men agree to praise."

Thus wrote Faber decades ago, and his words are as true today as when he penned them. Mankind in general has looked into matter for glory, imagining it could find in matter's transitory, unstable sense of beauty some trace of that divine resplendence which can never be less than eternal and unchangeable. When the Psalmist proclaimed, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork," he undoubtedly endeavored to lift thought from the ephemeral concepts of human belief into the grandeur and loveliness which belong to Spirit, Mind.

All through the Bible, God tells His people that His glory is ever imperishable, infinite, and soul-satisfying. The very first glimpse of Christian Science opens the vision in some degree to this glory of God, since it presents it as fixed in infinite Mind, as holy, as perfect, as divine as God Himself. Christian Science reveals not only the transcendent nature of God's glory, but the wonderful truth that it is always reflected through His infinite ideas. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 503) Mrs. Eddy writes: "Divine Science, the Word of God, saith to the darkness upon the face of error, 'God is All-in-all,' and the light of everpresent Love illumines the universe. Hence the eternal wonder,—that infinite space is peopled with God's ideas, reflecting Him in countless spiritual forms."

The heart that is truly receptive to this truth of being begins immediately to rejoice that it can become acquainted in ever increasing measure with that glory which is pure and holy and all unlike "what men agree to praise." With the world-weary, dissatisfied with false, frail, human concepts, great gratitude necessarily flows into consciousness when there comes that awakening which reveals God and His ideas as never less than all-glorious. How the thought touched by Christian Science reaches out to grasp the wonder of the glory of God's entire nature—of the glory of His goodness, His love, His intelligence, His holiness, His all-satisfying, infinite beauty! Words are too limited to express the magnitude of this all-embracing cause for gratitude.

It would therefore be an absolute impossibility for the Christian Scientist ever to say, "I have nothing for which to be grateful." Only the deadened human consciousness, absorbed in its false beliefs of good in matter could be so ungrateful. In "Unity of Good" (p. 56) Mrs. Eddy unites ingratitude with the evil mental conditions of "lust, malice, hate;" and she declares that they "constitute the miasma of earth." She even adds, "More obnoxious than Chinese stenchpots are these dispositions which offend the spiritual sense."

Ingratitude inevitably closes the door to health and harmony, for it fails totally to recognize good. One whose thought is absorbed with seeking the praise of men, with striving to win a personal, material sense of good, can never know aught of real spiritual satisfaction. To such as these gratitude is indeed an unknown quantity and quality. No glimpse of God's glory, of the loveliness and grandeur of Spirit, can unfold to one whose eyes and ears are of the unseeing and unhearing type which Jesus always condemned. To ingratitude, all cause for gratitude must seem ever absent, and as a result the resplendent beauty of God and His reflection is as unknown as is the gratitude which alone can recognize it.

The truly humble heart takes every opportunity to know, to feel, to express gratitude; no thought of good, no glimpse of love, no unfolding of intelligence, is so tiny but that the recognition of it immediately calls forth a glad song of thanksgiving. In even the smallest gleam of perfection such a heart sees God's glory and responds with gratitude. When the people of a nation are called, once a year, to unite in thanksgiving to God for all His great good to the sons of men, the Christian Scientist gladly embraces this opportunity for united praise for God's glory.

It is through this constant outpouring of thankfulness that we all as Christian Scientists find blessing upon blessing poured out upon us; for to feel grateful for good is always to open the door to the realization of more good. Indeed, it is thus that we experience the truth of Paul's statement, "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." What a tremendous reward is this for the exercise of the gracious quality of gratitude!

ELLA W. HOAG

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