"EVERY good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Giving is a divine activity. God ceaselessly gives both to and through His reflection, man; and as the rays of the sun give forth the light which is given to them from the sun, so individual man reflects the divine loveliness and substance which God gives to him. Can there be any place where the divine activity of giving can cease? We know there cannot be, since man exists to express God, the Giver of all good.

In all the divine universe of heavenly giving and reflecting, the sense of getting as applied to self-seeking is unknown. There is nothing Godlike in that attitude of thought; therefore, it must be a false belief. The Christian Scientist needs to be most watchful so that any thought of self-seeking shall be at once detected as a deterrent to spiritual progress, and dismissed from consciousness. Love "seeketh not her own."

Someone may ask, Am I never to expect a reward for faithful service? Yes, God rewards faithfulness. That is part of the divine giving, God's giving, and is ours to demonstrate. It was God who inspired the widow woman to sustain Elijah, and Elijah to sustain the widow. But if we were to work for material or personal reward, the false motive of self-seeking would at once hinder the good that we might otherwise do, for our service would be divorced from God, would lose the inspiration of reality, and receive no spiritual reward. "A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven." And there is no real joy apart from giving, for all joy is spiritual; and the moment one receives spiritual blessings, the spontaneous act must be to express that joy, it cannot be kept to oneself.

One who had been struggling to make ends meet invested in a house so that she might take in boarders; but her thought was often filled with fear when her rooms were empty. When at length the house was paid for, feeling that she had earned a rest, she no longer looked for boarders, but managed to live on her own very small income. Then came the call to action. The branch church of which she was a member was about to build. She longed to give generously, but her income did not warrant it; so she decided to open her house again to boarders, this time with a God-inspired motive to give. Without any special effort on her part her house was filled almost immediately. As Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 79), "Giving does not impoverish us in the service of our Maker, neither does withholding enrich us."

So, even in human experience, those who have discovered the joy of giving are happier and richer than those who withhold, and in our experience as Christian Scientists we find the constant desire to give is a protection from getting that which is undesirable. For instance, those who go to church with the desire to give, mentally and financially, are not likely to listen to suggestions of evil, for the desire to give and the selfish desire to get represent two opposite standpoints. Also the giving generously of what we have received from God keeps the flow of good continually pouring into our consciousness, and therefore into the consciousness of the church. This expressing of good cannot be impressed by false suggestions. The same applies to attendance at our lectures, to our visiting The Mother Church—those who go to give of gratitude, loyalty, spirituality, support, and so forth, receive abundantly, while those who go selfishly to get, may receive little.

A business man or woman who seeks merely to get business may get business of a sort, but it will not be the Father's business; while the one seeking to be about the Father's business must express that business in service and giving. The Christian Science practitioner, seeking to lift up the Christ, inevitably helps those who would find the likeness of Spirit which seems to have been lost. The patient who gives gratefully and honestly receives his reward in healing. But ungrateful withholding would be a direct hindrance to his healing. The same applies to the teacher in Christian Science. Better to share the priceless gift of Truth with one faithful student who is led of the Father, than to seek to get students, in order to fill a class, for only those whom the Father calls can receive the Father's message. Such honest spiritual work, if not at once, eventually will express itself in full classes.

One who seeks to get office or position, or one who refuses to overcome timidity or self-love sufficiently to accept a position of responsibility, knows little of the joy of true humility which serves; for in either case a false sense of selfhood prevents one from seeing the opportunity of true giving.

And how does this true giving apply to our so-called enemies? Does not the Master enjoin us not to cast pearls before the thought which will trample them underfoot? Yes, we can still give, but this giving is not to an enemy, so called, for in Truth we find no enemy or enmity towards God. Instead of enmity, we find, in the true idea of giving, God's ideas reflecting God to one another in "the rhythmic roundof unfolding bliss," to quote our Leader's words in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 83). Clinging to this true idea of giving will guide the Christian Scientist wisely, as to when to speak and when to remain silent. This ceaseless giving and reflecting of Life, Truth, and Love is a sure defense against aggressive mental suggestion and brings the true understanding of that substance which never grows less.