When James declared that "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights," he revealed a truth which, when applied, sets a very high standard for our giving. In the light of his unequivocal statement, it becomes clear that true gifts are spiritual, and represent incorruptible substance. Our giving, then, should partake of the nature of the eternal Giver, divine Love. Loving-kindness, cheerful service, unselfish co-operation, gentleness, patience, tolerance, forbearance, constitute durable gifts. And such gifts are twice blessed, for they inevitably bring to the giver increased happiness, peace, poise, and harmony—in short, improved character and sweetened human relationships.

These satisfying results might tempt us to think that we had reached the goal of true giving. But Christian Science shows something beyond this. It reveals the higher and more sacred gift of spiritual understanding which yields the abiding fruits of healing and rebirth. What is this transcendent bestowal? Is it not to accord to our brother his true spiritual status as the perfect reflection of perfect Being? Could we confer a greater boon upon anyone than to know him as God knows him, possessed of those inalienable qualities which constitute true manhood? What incalculable spiritual blessings would result from holding thought consistently to this true viewpoint! Persisted in, this right giving must ultimately rule out of human consciousness and experience all that would disturb, disquiet, or afflict.

Isaiah foretold of the promised Messiah that he would give "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;" and this prophecy was amply fulfilled in the life and works of Christ Jesus. His whole mission was to give spiritual substance for shadow, to reveal man's rightful heritage as the son of God. Jesus held steadfastly to the sublime fact that God is forever expressing in man His own unchanging qualities, and this understanding gave purity to the sinner, strength to the infirm, sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf. Jesus gave unstintingly of his rich spiritual treasures, which healed and comforted the hearts that made room for them.

The healing effect of scientific giving was strikingly exemplified by Peter at the beautiful gate of the temple where lay a man lame from his mother's womb. In response to this man's request for an alms, Peter made answer: "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." What was Peter's gift? Was it not his understanding of the name or nature of Christ, the nature of true being? And the result of this pure offering was to bring into expression man's normal activity as the reflection of infinite Life.

A student in a branch church testified that a neighbor—not a Christian Scientist—came to her one evening in great distress. He had just received a telegram from his wife, who was visiting in a city some four hundred miles distant, begging him to join her at once, as their little child was seriously ill with pneumonia. It seemed imperative for him to take the train that evening, but he had no ready cash, and as it was after banking and business hours, there seemed no means of securing any before morning. The student had a great longing to help him, but she also was without funds. Instinctively she turned to God for guidance, and the words of Peter, quoted above, came into thought. With great joy she realized that what she had to give far outweighed mere money, for was she not privileged to share her understanding of man's real being by true witnessing in her own thinking? Next morning a telegram brought the welcome news that there was no need for the father to undertake the journey. The child was healed.

Christian Science, God's unspeakable gift to mankind, brought through revelation to the waiting thought of Mary Baker Eddy, is teaching each one of us how to lift his sense of giving out of the merely material, that it may approach true spiritual offering. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy sets forth the reciprocal blessedness of spiritual giving when she writes (p. 518), "The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another's good."

To gain our own good through seeing and supplying a brother's need is an ideal worth striving for. And there is no human relationship which does not afford countless opportunities for unobtrusive yet effectual spiritual giving. In business, in the home, in church membership, and in all our daily contacts are we not called upon to give true substance, Godlike qualities, in exchange for such undesirable traits and unwarrantable actions as our brother may seem to exhibit? Evil claims to operate in human affairs and to be a part of a man's character. But since God holds man forever perfect in his changeless spiritual identity, each must destroy this belief in his own thinking. Each must separate from hsi concept of man all that is unlike perfection.

Does material sense argue that a brother is lacking in honesty, kindness, unselfishness, or any other quality of good? Then it is our privilege mentally to realize true supply by seeing him as in reality already possessed of the good he appears to lack. To the fearful we may give faith in God's loving care; to the intolerant we may give forbearance; to the prideful, humility. To each we may mentally render those God-qualities which are his eternally, though they do not as yet appear humanly.

By conceding to our neighbor his true spiritual nature as the expressed character of Mind, we are to that extent destroying evil's claim in our own thought, and helping our neighbor to do the same for himself.

To persist in this wise, loving, and impersonal giving, striving to see our fellow men always and only through the lens of divine Science, is to bestow upon all a priceless and enduring gift, and at the same time to enlarge our own understanding and demonstration of true being—of perfect God and the perfect universe, including man.