Editorial November 19, 1966 Issue

Gratitude and Healing

William Milford Correll

Gratitude is an essential ingredient of healing. It indicates the recognition of God's presence and power. Any change that takes place in one's experience must first take place in one's consciousness, and the prayerful and grateful recognition of good opens the door to healing and regeneration. Mrs. Eddy says, "An acknowledgment of the perfection of the infinite Unseen confers a power nothing else can." ^{Unity of Good, p. 7;}

Gratitude rests on the evidence of spiritual sense and does not wait on matter or material sense. In Christian Science we learn that causation is mental. Thought is the substance of experience. And when one's thought is held fast to the ideal man, made in God's image and likeness, this ideal shapes one's life according to the direction of divine Principle. Through spiritual sense one can behold the true man, define his quality, identify his nature, and individualize his activity. Thus gratitude, or the appreciation of good, becomes a healing force in one's life.

When we learn that matter is not substance, but that it is simply the expression of material mentality, we can begin to see how ideals held to in consciousness transform that mentality and shape human experience. Mrs. Eddy touches on this subject in her sermon "Christian Healing," where she says, "I saw how the mind's ideals were evolved and made tangible; and it matters not whether that ideal is a flower or a cancer, if the belief is strong enough to manifest it." ^{Hea., p. 6;} A higher, more spiritual consciousness destroys disease and reveals a better human expression of health and well-being. How important it becomes to us, then, not to bow down to error but to hold fast to the spiritual ideal!

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