When Jesus sent forth the twelve disciples on their mission to mankind, bidding them preach the gospel and heal the sick wherever they should go, he concluded this part of his instructions with the significant statement: "Freely ye have received, freely give." Theirs was indeed a blessed privilege. Chosen by the Master who had called them from their varied fields of labor to become "fishers of men," favored with the companionship and personal instruction of the great Teacher, they had indeed received freely, and now it was their high privilege to share with others the "bread of life" which had been broken for them by the gracious hand of their loved Master and friend. The wonderful blessing that had come to them was not to be selfishly treasured, but they were to share it freely with all who would receive it.
In his earlier instruction the Master had likewise striven to impress upon them the joy and blessedness of giving,— "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." And over and over again, both by precept and example, he taught them, as Paul later chronicles, that "it is more blessed to give than to receive." He who was to bestow upon men the supreme gift of that "greater love," knew there was no purer joy, no more abiding happiness than that which comes from the giving of one's best, one's all,—even as did she who with tears of love and gratitude lavished the costly ointment on the Master who refused to condemn and even defended her from the unspoken taunt of his self-righteous host; or as did the widowed one who out of her penury gave more than they who had abundance.
With the passing of each year there comes home to us anew how great is our indebtedness as Christian Scientists to the beloved Leader who has made possible to this and succeeding generations the joy of sharing with their fellow men the manifold blessings that have come to them through the understanding of God as divine Truth, Life, and Love, God omnipotent, omniscient, and ever present, God revealed and illumined in the light of the teachings of Christian Science as the giver of good and not evil, as the Father who "so loved the world" that He gave them the boon of eternal life through him whom Peter first discerned as "the Christ, the Son of the living God."
