Article November 24, 1934 ISSUE

The Command to Be Grateful

JOHN RANDALL DUNN

Many students of the Bible have apparently been unaware of the fact that there is to be found in the Holy Scriptures what might well be thought of as an eleventh commandment — the command to be grateful. Like an exquisite motif appearing again and again in a symphony, so the call to the human heart to cherish and reflect gratitude is expressed throughout the sacred writings.

The children of Israel, after their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, were constantly warned against the sin of ingratitude. "Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, . ." said Moses, "lest when thou hast eaten and art full, . . . and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, . . . and thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God." And he adds the warning that those who forget God, the source of all good, those who do not acknowledge through grateful obedience the manifestation of divine deliverance, "shall surely perish." The ungrateful heart excludes itself from the joy and understanding of real living.

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