Article May 1, 1943 Issue

"What can I be grateful for?"

JUSTICE M. MATHEWS, JR.

Students of Christian Science are frequently reminded of the efficacy of gratitude in their healing work. The grateful thought leaves doubt and discouragement behind, and through wholehearted acceptance of the angel thoughts ever waiting to be recognized, spontaneously overflows in rejoicing and thankfulness. Thus one is well on the way toward "forgetting those things which are behind." But personal sense may say something like this: "My troubles are numerous and pressing; my outlook dreary. Those who are better situated than I am may be grateful, but what have I to be grateful for?"

One might begin by being grateful for having one perfect gift, Christian Science, in the midst of an imperfect world, in which nothing is wholly good, dependable, or lasting. One does not progress far in the study of this Science before he realizes with wonder and joy the fact of the perfection of Spirit. The vast new realm that has been revealed to him is one in which only good is true, and nothing is too good to be true. Error is reduced to less than a shadow of a shadow. It is analyzed, found to be without reality or substance, and in proportion as God's allness is apprehended it vanishes, and there remains only the goodness of God, the infinitude of Mind, the absoluteness of Principle and its manifestation. Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," has epitomized this thought in the following words (p. 6): "'God is Love.' More than this we cannot ask, higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go." Surely, in the possession of this treasure, and in the opportunity to share its blessings, there is cause for gratitude. Surely the unlimited good which God bestows upon each individual, and which awaits unfoldment as does the beauty of the flower in the bud, must bring rejoicing!

As one opens his thought willingly to right ideas, he begins to gain that true perspective in which the joys of Spirit appear and the barrenness of mortal life fades away. A higher concept of identity begins to unfold. It is seen that man, the expression of the one divine Mind, in which there can be no confusion, obscurity, or limitation of any sort, must necessarily constantly exist at the standpoint of perfection and completeness. He is all that God knows him to be. There is for him but one Mind-action, which is wholly harmonious and does not include mesmeric false beliefs. There is for him but one Life, one of order and purpose, in which there can be no sense of helplessness, no victim of an evil fate. Error may seem to talk to itself, but it can never talk to God; hence, it cannot talk to God's man, the direct expression of God's being. Realization of these truths brings abundant gratitude, and joyous freedom from depression and self-pity.

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