The quality of grace is one which is greatly needed by individuals in every walk of life. The Bible is replete with references on the securing and retaining of grace. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 17), Mary Baker Eddy gives the spiritual interpretation of the petition in the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread," as, "Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections." How then can we obtain "grace for to-day," that "the famished affections" may be satisfied?

Patience, coupled with the understanding that man is complete, satisfied, at one with his Father-Mother God, refreshes and replenishes human thought. As we see that the only real rest and peace come from divine Love, we find a human yearning for persons and things yielding to divine satisfaction. Man, as a complete idea of God, is sustained by Mind, the inexhaustible source of all good. The seeker who learns this, finds that all true happiness is God-bestowed, and false human affections are replaced by a better understanding of God. All yearning for person, place, or thing may be reversed by the desire for Spirit, God, a hungering and thirsting after righteousness. As man inherits true qualities from God, who created him male and female, man has strength, poise, freedom, and dominion now. Thus in real being there are no unsatisfied longings.

As one studies the petition, "Give us grace for to-day," one realizes that God gives us sufficient for each day. With this sense of spiritual sufficiency one knows that no good can be withheld from him or taken from him. No belief in matter, whether this be manifested in material possessions, an inflated sense of self, or a belief in human popularity, can obstruct one's continuous growth in grace, if one is in earnest and alert.

No sapping, weakening, or parasitic thought can make one accept a false sense of burden or responsibility. No sense of personal possession in family or friends can deprive one of abundant joy, freedom, and liberty. Since good is infinite, all have the opportunity to share in it equally, and he who has not yet attained this sense of abundant living need only see that a gracious Father-Mother God bestows His bounties on all alike, and that all can experience this bounty in the measure that they show forth His affluent nature.

Mrs. Eddy states on page 4 of Science and Health relative to the specific qualities needed, "What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds." Thus shall we overcome pride, self-will, self-ignorance, self-love, dethrone pomposity, opinionativeness, and vanity, and establish true grace.

The writer of Proverbs states, "He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend." Kindliness in speech and action reflects true grace. The warm beams of light and love dissolve all hard beliefs of life, substance, and intelligence in matter. The tenderness of gentle acts, like the sun, disperses the clouds of unlovely, fearful, proud beliefs, and man's real selfhood thus appears. As cold, stubborn thought yields to the graciousness of omnipotent Love, symmetry, normalcy, and perfection are established.

Spiritual exaltation comes through humble and contrite thought. The spiritually exalted thought, seeking "grace for to-day," seeks not for personal advancement, position, and power. Nor is it puffed up with exploitations of self. The individual who receives grace from God sees true selfhood as the expression of the one Mind, and thus he becomes subservient only to Truth, and the master of corporeal sense. Thus self-inflation is lessened, and the glory of God, the divine Ego, is established. With the overcoming of the desire for personal domination and the exercise of human will over people and situations, comes the realization of true grace. The individual who prays for "grace for to-day" does not push, press, or force his way. He does not love "the chief seats in the synagogues," but walks quietly wherever he feels that God is leading him. This quietness of action comes from peaceful and calm thinking—a product of true grace and innate spirituality.

Dwelling in the consciousness of spiritual sense, we are daily denying the beliefs of materiality, the flesh, and the carnal mind, and so become acquainted with and receptive of the grace of God. The grace freely bestowed by our heavenly Father is reflected as we accept His mercies, make use of them, and claim them as our own.

In II Corinthians we read, "God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiencey in all things, may abound to every good work." We see then that there is sufficient good here for all—neither an overproduction nor an underproduction. Man reflects and possesses amplitude—not too little or too much, but spiritual abundance.

Through the lens of Science we are helped to magnify Principle instead of person, good instead of evil, and Spirit instead of matter. Enlarging on the good and true, we see that the son can only express what the Father has given him. One who reflects the grace of God is temperate in thought, word, and deed. He does not spread tales or gossip. He is guided in his growth in grace by intelligent thought, from which proceeds wise, intelligent action. As right thinking governs the body, divine control is established and harmony reigns.

Mrs. Eddy states in "Unity of Good" (p. 14), "Christians are commanded to grow in grace." In the words of a hymn,