The scientific acknowledgment of the presence, power, and infinite goodness of God under every circumstance in which we may find ourselves is true gratitude. And since the recognition of God's allness—His omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence—which is the foundation of all true gratitude, is not at all dependent upon one's human condition or situation, it follows that constant gratitude can and must be expressed, even in the face of what may seem to be a difficult human experience.

The Bible presents countless illustrations and proofs of this important truth. Hagar, for example, having wandered hopelessly in the wilderness without drink for herself or her child, was awakened from discouragement and despair by the angel's words (Gen. 21:17), "What aileth thee, Hagar?" to the dawning recognition, even before it was made evident in experience, that the omnipresence of God, good, precludes affliction. And then she found the needed water just at hand.

So to each one of us, in whatever desperate situation we may seem to be, there comes as we listen for it the angel voice asking, "What aileth thee?" What can overpower omnipotence or displace omnipresence? What can outwit omniscience? When grateful acknowledgment of spiritual perfection as the present reality enables us, despite the material evidence to the contrary, to answer the angel query aright, that acknowledgment is translated in our immediate experience, as it was in Hagar's, into terms which meet the human need and which are cognizable by our present state of consciousness.

Thus we perceive that, scientifically speaking, gratitude should be the precursor of the evidence of harmony, as well as the state of thankfulness which follows the appearance of such evidence. Mary Baker Eddy tells us in her text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 207), "The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things." The spiritual reality is forever established; but it is our steadfast acknowledgment of this reality in the face of every countervailing argument of the material senses which makes it manifest as the scientific fact in daily experience. This righteous acknowledgment is gratitude in its scientific sense, and such gratitude precedes as well as follows healing or demonstration.

The healing ministry of Christ Jesus richly reveals how thankful recognition of God's allness just when sin, disease, lack, or even death itself, seems most real, sets aside these material conditions as illusive and brings to light the spiritual reality: health, holiness, abundance, and immortality. Jesus gave thanks, and the multitude was fed in the wilderness. At the tomb of Lazarus he said (John 11:41), "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me," and Lazarus came forth. To the widow of Nain, whose only son was then being carried out in a funeral procession, he was able to say (Luke 7:13), "Weep not," before her son was raised from his bier. Only from the fullness of the Christ-knowledge of the omnipresence and omnipotence of eternal Life could this wonderful command proceed with compassion and power sufficient to quicken a widowed mother's hope at such a moment. And must there not have been instant response by her to those hope-bringing words even before she could perceive the evidence of her hope?

In just such thankful admission of the spiritual reality where the hopeless unreal seems to reign do we find release today, as in Jesus' time, from the problems of human existence, small or great, individual or universal. This was lucidly illustrated to a student of Christian Science who during the early days of his Army service in the Second World War found himself in a position which seemed to him not only uninteresting but quite useless as well. When through his daily work in Christian Science he was awakened to the need for handling the problem of placement and the suggestions of discouragement in a specific way, there came to his thought in a new light the familiar words of our Leader (Science and Health, p. 6): "'God is Love.' More than this we cannot ask, higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go." He saw more clearly than before that since God is Love now, there could in reality be no need for him to get anything or to change anything. All he had to do was to acknowledge more fully, then and there, the present and eternal perfection and allness of divine Love, in which all good was then and forever his.

With this realization there came a deep sense of gratitude for the spiritual reality, a gratitude so profound that it completely outweighed the material evidence of an unpleasant situation and robbed it of its overweening importance to him. Gaining the clear perception that spiritual perfection is the immutable fact, regardless of what the material senses may be testifying, he found himself completely satisfied, thus proving his satisfaction to be wholly independent of his material position and environment. And, as must always follow such a change of consciousness, the things humanly needed were immediately added to him; for on that same day, at the very next formation of his company, he was called from the ranks and asked to take over work at his regimental headquarters which not only proved interesting and useful, but led to more harmonious conditions for him in other ways as well.

Then followed further thankfulness, not only for the solution of his human problem, but for the clear and direct proof that no matter how much any problem may seem to be outside of oneself and the result of conditions beyond one's control, it never exists independently of one's acceptance of it in consciousness. Consciously claiming and accepting the spiritual reality, we lose the consciousness of a problem. Then it disappears from our experience, demonstrating that it never had existence other than that which illusive material thinking accorded it, and that, now and always, "the spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things." In such demonstration we perceive why the scientific acknowledgment of harmony must precede the visible evidence of harmony. Mrs. Eddy inspiringly assures us "that an acknowledgment of the perfection of the infinite Unseen confers a power nothing else can" (Unity of Good, p. 7). When, in humble gratitude for the scientific reality, we unreservedly acknowledge the changeless harmony of the "infinite Unseen," despite appearances to the contrary, then is harmony made manifest according to our need. Thus gratitude, scientifically understood and practiced, and demonstration are proved to be one.