Article January 23, 1932 Issue

Gratitude—Its Releasing Effect

MILDRED G. PORTER

"For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness." What tender hope and comfort is extended to one and all, as thought turns receptively to the foregoing promise from Psalms! Therein dwells an assurance of both satisfaction and abundance, states of consciousness much desired by humanity, much needed and sought after.

Regarding prayerfully these desirable states of thinking, one is apt hopefully to search for the directions implied in the phrases "the longing soul" and "the hungry soul." How true it is that only the heart which yearns for God, reaching out in deepest reverence, hungering for a purer sense of Life than materiality has ever offered, can attain the understanding essential to enjoy true satisfaction and an abundance of good! Such exalted spiritual longings assuredly tend to silence the call of the world, with its attendant heartaches and woes. Of superlative value is an abiding sense of gratitude, with the releasing effect which invariably accompanies this wholesome mental condition.

That the longing sense searching for Truth is comforted was convincingly proved by a student of Christian Science when in childlike trust she lifted thought above materiality and up to God. During a number of days a tormenting, disconcerting atmosphere of gloom seemed tenaciously to invade her consciousness. Efforts were made, it was believed, to surmount the counterfeit sense, but with little apparent success. A reluctance to recognize much reason for gratitude was accompanied by overwhelming suggestions of discouragement, followed by an utter lack of joy in the daily tasks requiring cheerful and orderly attention. Deeper than the gloom, however, was an indwelling longing sense, a yearning for a true and workable understanding of things as God knows them to be.

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