Giving is inseparable from loving. Withholding of what is needed is no part of true affection. Giving is a quality of infinite Love, God. In fact, God's relationship to man may be expressed in terms of divine Love's uninterrupted giving, which man reflects and thereby is conscious of receiving. This giving is spiritual and therefore practical. It is presently manifest in the awareness of all needs supplied, foremost among which is the need for love. God's love for man is the life of man, and God gives His Christ, the spiritual idea of Himself, whereby the life of man is provably immune from mortality. The Scripture declares (Rom. 6:23), "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Emphasis upon the reality of the spiritual sense of giving is found in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, which is the Comforter Christ Jesus promised to men. In her book "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," page 5, she explains, "Wholly apart from this mortal dream, this illusion and delusion of sense, Christian Science comes to reveal man as God's image, His idea, coexistent with Him—God giving all and man having all that God gives."

The last ten words, epitomizing the meaning of those which precede them in the above quotation, encompass the whole of reality. God, perfect Love, everlastingly and inexhaustibly gives all that He has and is; man, the object of perfect Love, forever has all that Love gives. Since man reflects God, he has by reflection the ability to give. Hence this reflected ability is describable in terms of giving and receiving. Giving is primary because it inheres only in the one divine origin, God, and receiving is the effect of giving.

It is understandable, then, that giving is associated with the coming of the Christ; indeed, not only associated with it but inevitably descriptive of it. The Christ, be it repeated, is the divine Father's matchless gift to men. It is the spiritual idea equipped with understanding that God is the Father of man and with ability to dispel the illusion of mortal sense, which cannot understand that fact. With this Christ, God endowed the man Jesus, the son of a virgin, who illustrated the power of understanding the truth that man's Parent is God. Without this Christ, this gift of divine Love, humanity could never have seen the power of God in operation for the salvation of mortals from all ills of the flesh. Such a gift, recognized, inspires spontaneous giving by all who, in any degree, feel its significance.

Because of its spiritual nature, this Christ is a daily, hourly, momentary gift to the individual who cultivates spiritual perception. Christian Science is the proclaimer of that fact to the world. Coming to mankind to lead into all truth, as the master Christian promised it would, this Comforter, this Science of Christianity, makes clear the timeless, ceaseless appearing of the Truth, or Christ, which, accepted, renders men free from restrictions of mortal sense. Hence there is no preferred time for appreciation of this gift, no marked period to which humanity's homage to the Giver is confined.

If in the experience of men and women attention is focused by collective agreement at fixed times upon the coming of the Christ, and the reflected giving of God is then approximated to the minimizing of selfish, mortal impulses, this focusing should be understood spiritually and extended to include every moment of consciousness. For the focusing of attention upon God, accompanied by gratitude for His gift of flawless love, is the standpoint at which man in reality lives eternally.

In its counterfeit of the meaning of this changeless truth, mortal sense may mouth the Christian's words while celebrating its own false concept, which reckons giving and receiving as material. Instead of venting good will from a heart purged of self-seeking, it may degrade its giving and receiving by valuing them materially and counting its supposed gain in terms of matter. It may seem to itself to reverse the freedom which accompanies the recognition of the Christ's appearing and to interpret freedom as license in lawless materiality. But it can never change the fact that in such counterfeit there is no love, no substance, no true giving, and no receiving.

It is the affections that are important. These belong wholly to God and His Christ. Given where they should be given, they are simultaneous with spiritual power, which cleanses the individual of sin, sickness, and death. Speaking of the "new understanding of spiritual Love," Mrs. Eddy declares (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 33): "It gives all for Christ, or Truth. It blesses its enemies, heals the sick, casts out error, raises the dead from trespasses and sins, and preaches the gospel to the poor, the meek in heart."

Equal to every need, the rule of giving nevertheless permits of no waste. It is a rule of abundance, but not excess. In the economy of wisdom and right perception one may well accept the measuring rod which requires giving to that which he appraises as worthy of his affections, and keeping his appraisal in line with spiritual understanding. The degree of worthiness determines the degree of giving. No wonder Mrs. Eddy declared that the new understanding of spiritual Love gives all for Christ. The bargain is total. Man, reflecting his Maker, gives all and receives all. And the all is love.

Thus no one can be depleted by true giving, for giving is the measure of loving, and love is received in the degree that love is expressed. Christ Jesus has stated it thus (Luke 6:38): "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom." And the great Leader of the Christian Science movement has left no doubt of his meaning, if her words be taken in their true, spiritual significance (Science and Health, pp.79,80): "Giving does not impoverish us in the service of our Maker, neither does withholding enrich us. We have strength in proportion to our apprehension of the truth, and our strength is not lessened by giving utterance to truth." Giving utterance to truth is giving expression to love, the voicing and practicing of genuine affection, which withholds no good thing from that upon which affection is worthily bestowed and which is deprived of nothing in the measure that love is expressed.

George Channing