Thankfulness

People should be more thankful than they are, Christians and non-Christians alike. There is nothing so satisfying as a thankful heart. There is nothing which brings so much joy, so much peace, so much comfort, so much health. A person with a truly thankful heart is a well person. We are speaking of thankfulness to God, the Giver of all good. The only absolutely real thankfulness one can have is thankfulness to Him. All other thankfulness is relative, comparatively nothing.

How shall thankfulness to God be shown? It is well to express thanks in words. Words sincerely spoken from a thankful heart help the speaker and others. Words of thankfulness returned to God in sweet communion with Him, are helpful to the communicants; they bring us consciously nearer to Him; they uplift and strengthen; they aid in enlarging our spiritual nature and in clarifying our spiritual perception. But the highest and most effectual form of thankfulness is in right thinking and living. We show our true appreciation of anything in deeds better than in words. We are thankful to God when we are doing His will. We give thanks in the measure of our active obedience to His commandments, in being about the Father's business. We are thankful in the degree of our overcoming selfishness, with its train of evils. We are thankful in proportion as we love our neighbor and do unto him as we would have him do unto us. We are thankful as we reflect the good that is ours by virtue of our real relationship to the infinite and supreme Good. Such thankfulness leads us to express it in both deed and word. We cannot help expressing it. If we have received Light we must reflect it in proportion. We could not, if we would, hide it under a bushel. We reflect it unconsciously, because it is the light Divine shining through the open window of our being.

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How sweetly the Light thus unconsciously reflected often returns to us, not void, but filled with joy, the joy which comes from "Love reflected in love." We have just had a sweet taste of this joy. It came in a letter from which we extract. We distinctly remember the person and the occasion referred to, but we cannot recall a single word of what we said.

We quote:—

Dear Friend in Truth:—Last night at our Wednesday evening meeting we seemed to have a regular Thanksgiving meeting. While every minute of the time was being taken and I was trying to see what I had to be grateful for, I went back to the time when I was so starved and you came and fed me by telling me what God was. I remember I became so filled, so rested, so lifted, that I wondered if any one ever talked so beautifully before. Afterward I realized I had been healed of several diseases of years' standing, and I knew that God had talked through you. So I send to you, on paper, my heartfelt thanksgiving.

To-night I am thankful it has been proven to me that "God is our Father and our Mother, our Minister, and the great Physician: He is man's only real relative on earth and in heaven" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 151). If I have drawn a well or a happy breath since 1892, I owe it all to Christian Science. To be sure, during that time, I have had many struggles, but with every struggle for right there has been a victory, a cause for rejoicing such as the world cannot give or take away.

I am thankful for our consecrated Leader and Teacher, the Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, who is so lovingly laboring to prove to us that there is no power to separate us from God, and to lead us on to our God-given birthright,—health, harmony, and holiness. I am thankful for our faithful workers at headquarters who labor so unselfishly. I am thankful for our editors and publishers, our Bible Committee who break the bread of life that we may realize our pastor is always at hand.

I am thankful for all workers at the Publishing House. I am thankful for my patient, loyal teacher here in S——, who tenderly guards and guides my steps.

And when I think of all these and many more blessings, my heart fills full, for I see the half can never be told in words. Truly "Divine Love always has met, and always will meet, every human need" (Science and Health, p. 490).

When we called to see the author of this glad pæan, we found a pale-faced invalid for whom the physicians said there was no hope. To human sense their verdict was well founded. But the suffering one found that indeed God was her Minister, her Relative on earth and in Heaven, her Physician.

No wonder, then, that this heart overflows with thankfulness to God, and to the Christian woman who had so long walked with God that she had learned He was her Minister, her Relative, her Physician; and who thereby became able to tell others that He would become their Minister, their Relative, and their Physician, if they would but admit Him into the household of their consciousness. And we here add our meed of thankfulness that God, through this faithful servant, so awakened our consciousness to His all-ness that we were enabled to reflect a measure thereof, such, as in one short talk, was sufficient to awaken to life and health and joy, the suffering one whose tender words of thankfulness have touched so deep a chord in our heart.

Well do we remember the circumstances under which the message above quoted from first came to our knowledge. It was sent by our beloved Leader and Teacher to be read at the opening service in a new hall which, through the generosity of one of the little flock at Scranton, had been provided for a place of worship and a headquarters for Christian Science in that city. It was our great privilege to read it on that occasion, and it fell as a sweet and glorious benediction upon the ears of all the dear "children" there.

We have just re-read it with much benefit to ourselves. The words are helpful—infinitely helpful—and the tender associations surrounding this early experience in our career in Science, give them an especially deep and precious significance.

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