Editorial May 19, 1928 Issue

Perfect Gifts

Albert F. Gilmore

The Apostle James in familiar words states that every good and perfect gift "is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." Thus God is recognized as the source of all the good which comes to bless and heal mankind. But the apostle qualifies these gifts. Not all that mortals receive, however, but the good and perfect gifts alone, come from God. What are they? What do we receive that is good and perfect, and comes from God? One who regards life and its conditions as material, and matter as real and substantial, thinks of good gifts in terms of matter, of whatever adds most to his human sense of pleasure and profit.

The spiritually-minded, on the contrary, will likely think of good gifts as something wholly different, as the spiritual truth which has been revealed to him, the truth about God, about the true universe, and about the real man. Which of these categories is most worthy to be classed as perfect gifts? There can be but one answer: that which includes the real and permanent, the eternal. Then there arise other questions, important ones: What are these perfect gifts? and how may I receive them? On page 345 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy in general terms defines perfect gifts. "The Spirit," she writes, "bestows spiritual gifts, God's presence and providence." The angels of God's presence, the spiritual ideas always standing at the door of consciousness ready to enter if the door be opened, are the perfect gifts, which come down "from the Father of lights." These spiritual ideas are the witnesses of God's presence which throng the spiritualized consciousness, heralds of the glorious truth that man is spiritual and perfect, God's veritable likeness, coeternal and coexistent with Him.

Could there be more gracious, more precious gifts than these? What gifts could be better or more perfect? Surely such gifts exemplify the very acme of both goodness and perfectness, since they are the direct emanation from Him who is infinitely good and eternally perfect. Spiritual ideas, then, are the perfect gift.

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Unwinding Snarls
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