Article November 22, 1975 Issue

Gratitude: A Healing Attitude

DOROTHY H. JONES

Christian Science lifts gratitude out of the range of mere human emotion by showing that it expresses the very power of God, Spirit. Being imbued with spiritual power, gratitude for God and His omnipotence does more than cheer us—it has a healing effect in our lives. How? True gratitude is an acknowledgment of divine Love's ever-present goodness, and this attitude helps dissolve discord.

Since gratitude is such a force for good, we need to keep it active in our consciousness. We can sing as the Psalmist: "O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day."^{ Ps. 119:97;} Because the desire as well as the ability to express gratitude has a spiritual animus, we may rightly wonder why this healing attitude sometimes seems so conspicuously absent.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, has used the term "animal magnetism" to describe the hypnotic state of thought that would pull us away from our high goal of glorifying God. Through the study of Christian Science we learn that animal magnetism is the illusive activity of supposititious mortal mind. Mortal mind claims that man is a mortal, combining good and evil—that he is a dual being, composed of matter and Spirit. It would have us believe that God is unknowable and that lasting good is impossible. "Scientifically speaking," Mrs. Eddy writes, "there is no mortal mind out of which to make material beliefs, springing from illusion. This misnamed mind is not an entity. It is only a false sense of matter, since matter is not sensible."^{ Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 399;}