Editorial March 22, 1941 Issue

Magnanimity

Evelyn F. Heywood

Magnanimity means something more than generous giving. It means nobility allied to giving. It means a quality of thought which is not only ungrudging and ample, but which in generosity of thought and action is exalted into greatness. Magnanimity is not concerned with either approbation or personal advantage; it is inspired solely by the zeal and beauty of giving, even as the artist and musician rejoice in the unfolding of that which they know to be immeasurably greater than themselves. Magnanimity has the continuous nature of loving; it does not give and then withdraw; it has within it no motive of self-advantage, no device to exercise influence or gain power. In its impulse, its vigor, its immediate response to others' needs, the negation of niggardliness plays no part. In quality and in quantity it foreshadows the munificence which is not human but divine.

The giving which Christ Jesus expressed was of such a nature, unhampered and undelayed by fear, by selfishness, by partiality. On page 54 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy has written of him: "Through the magnitude of his human life, he demonstrated the divine Life. Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, he defined Love. With the affluence of Truth, he vanquished error."

Magnanimity can be expressed only by him who gives not merely of what he has, but what he is, bringing grace and beauty to his offering with the expression of those attributes of compassion and understanding which unite all men in one great purpose to show forth the affluence of God.

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