But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. . . . 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.— Luke, 6:27, 28, 38.
To us to-day, at this our first annual meeting, when we pause for a moment to realize the many new and varied experiences, the trials, the seeming defeats, and the more certain victories since one year ago we launched our frail bark on the hitherto, by us, unexplored ocean of Christian Science, to us these commands of the Master come with a new and peculiar force, a deeper and grander meaning. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, are all commands to give, out of the Divine plenty which we have received. Give, with no thought of reward or return, because it is more blessed to give than to receive; because only by giving can we reflect God; because by giving that which we have already received, we make room for God's measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over; because only by giving can we keep in touch with the eternal currents of Truth, — God's thoughts, — passing continuously and with ever-increasing power and volume from God to man; because only by giving, passing the good thoughts along, do we enhance our ability to reflect God, manifest His power, express His intelligence. When we stop giving we get in God's way, obstruct His light, cease to reflect Him, and thereby become inactive, stagnant, selfish; holding on to that we have for fear the supply will be exhausted, and in belief bringing about the very result which we seek to guard against; "for with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. Good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over."
Remember that "thoughts are things," and so-called material objects and possessions only types of thought, imperfectly understood, or clothed upon with our own selfish embellishments. All true thoughts are God's thoughts, emanating from the One Mind, the One Intelligence, the One Source of supply, which always exceeds the demand.
