Editorial November 19, 1938 Issue

Praise and Thanksgiving

George Shaw Cook

Writing under the marginal heading "Deity unchangeable," on page 2 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy says, "God is not moved by the breath of praise to do more than He has already done, nor can the infinite do less than bestow all good, since He is unchanging wisdom and Love."

It is readily seen that God, who is "unchanging wisdom and Love," is not "moved by the breath of praise." It is equally obvious that God, divine Mind, conscious of His changeless goodness and eternal perfection, can derive no satisfaction from the praise and thanksgiving of mortals. To what purpose then do we praise and glorify the Almighty? Certainly not to please Him or to make Him better. Is it not, then, that gratitude expressed as praise is an acknowledgment of the goodness of God, and that such acknowledgment helps us, and makes us better? Gratitude, true thankfulness, "uttered or unexpressed" is, in effect, a recognition of divine Mind's omnipotence and omniscience. It is something which elevates, purifies, and strengthens.

In his prayer of thanksgiving (I Chron. 29:11) David glorified God eloquently as follows: "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all." But God is glorified not only in prayer and praise, but in expressing His divine qualities in thought and deed. And Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 3), "Gratitude is much more than a verbal expression of thanks. Action expresses more gratitude than speech."

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