Article January 15, 1944 Issue

"Give us grace for to-day"

LORA C. RATHVON

Centuries ago, when Christ Jesus walked over the hillsides of Judea preaching to and healing the multitudes who followed him, he often turned away from the crowds and sought solitude in order to commune alone with God and find spiritual refreshment. On one memorable occasion he bade his disciples join him on a lonely mountainside. There he expounded to them intimately and fearlessly the spiritual truths of being, that they too might be filled with grace and power to carry on the expanding work of universal salvation. On this occasion he taught them how to pray, and in that healing prayer, heard round the world today, he said, "Give us this day our daily bread." This line has been spiritually rendered by our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 17), "Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections."

We may well ask, What is grace? Someone gained a glimpse of it when he said that it was giving something, seeking nothing in return. The spiritual sense of grace cannot be defined by one word. It is expansive, and so expressive of true substance that it outweighs mere words, and sends thoughts winging from earth to heaven. It is as intangible and unconfined as sunshine, light, or joy.

Grace is not a single quality, but is the irradiance which sheds its light from our hearts when Godlike qualities are being expressed. It is like the fragrance from a garden when all the flowers come into bloom. It is not an outward polish or veneer, but an inward warmth and light; it is the offshoot of an understanding of God and a humble, fervent desire to serve Him. It is an invisible power, a miracle of loveliness, which angels administer, and which springs from an all-pervading reliance on God. Grace implies the understanding of Life, Truth, and Love, and only as our hearts are softened by grace can we apprehend more and more the meaning of those all-embracing terms, Life, Truth, and Love.

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