GRATITUDE

Annie M. Knott

It would seem as if some people were actually troubled over the fact that gratitude is springing up in the soil of human consciousness as it has not for a long time if ever before. They fail to see that gratitude is not a product of the so-called carnal mind, which is prolific in quite another direction. Paul was not mistaken when he linked unholiness and unthankfulness together, and a little earnest consideration will show that true gratitude never springs up nor blossoms until men begin to recognize and appreciate the goodness of God, divine Love, and to praise His holy name. It is a profound saying, that a churl may bestow a gift, but that only a person of rare culture knows how to receive a gift graciously.

Our Lord and Master immortalized grateful love when he said of the woman who poured a priceless perfume over his head, "Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her." It is true that some who were present considered this outpouring of perfume and of gratitude needless and even blameworthy, but the Master said, "Let her alone!"

With the coming of Christian Science and its Christly healing we have a new uprising of gratitude, which finds its expression, ofttimes at our Wednesday meetings and in our periodicals, in voicing tender thanks to the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, through whom has come the understanding of Truth which has healed unnumbered thousands of sin, sorrow, and disease. Those who are present at these meetings out of curiosity, or who have not experienced the healing and uplifting which calls forth these expressions of gratitude, are sometimes surprised, while some are "sore displeased," like the chief priests and scribes, when the children loudly proclaimed the praises of the Master because he healed the sufferers who came to him in the temple seeking his aid. Possibly it did not occur to those old-time critics that they could best show their devotion to God and His service by helping forward the healing work, even if they were not ready to do it themselves. It is evident that they did not know how to analyze thought, or to trace truly the relation of cause and effect, else would they have known that the good works done by Jesus and his students were of God and not of Beelzebub, and that thankfulness for these good works was a natural outflowing of the healing itself. The repressive spirit which would have silenced the expressions of gratitude would have repressed also that which called it forth, and this is true to-day even as it was then.

Why do we teach a little child with the earliest use of speech to lisp, Thank you? The adult does not crave the child's thanks, but the child needs to express gratitude if his character is to be normal and beautiful, and the channels for this noble sentiment must ever be kept open. The pity is that the giving of thanks should ever come to be a mere form of speech rather than the uprising of a spiritual sense which recognizes every bestowal of kindness and is grateful for it to God, and to the one through whom it comes. If we are grateful for the blessings received in Christian Science, it is only natural that we should mention the one whose toils and sacrifices have enabled us to know that God heals to-day even as when Jesus was here on earth. True gratitude to Mrs. Eddy but proves the awakening in us of a spiritual faculty which will in time recognize and give thanks for all the good that blesses our existence. If we do not love and are not grateful to our Leader whom we have seen, how can we be thankful to God whom we have not seen.

Annie M. Knott.

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LETTERS TO OUR LEADER

August 8, 1908

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