There is, perhaps, no surer way of discovering one's true status as a Christian Scientist than through the process of separation, putting ourselves on one side or the other of the line of demarcation between giving and receiving. Why are we Christian Scientists? For what we can give, or for what we can receive? Are we blessing as we have been blessed, giving our presence, our prayers, our support, to the varied activities of The Church of Christ, Scientist, as instituted by Mrs. Eddy, The Mother Church and its wide-spreading branches; giving of our best to the cause of Christ and the coming of the kingdom of God in the hearts of men; or are we passive recipients of these benefits, accepting them as simply our due, or following the Christ not because of the miracles, but for the loaves and fishes?
Again and again the Master impressed upon his followers that to be his disciple meant not a life of ease and self-satisfaction, but one of service to others. Their "high calling of God" was the privilege of sharing in his own mission, —"to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." They were to give and spare not. "Give," he said, "and it shall be given unto you;" give of that which enabled Peter to say to the crippled beggar: "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk."
Gratitude for benefits received has of course been a distinctive feature in the tremendous growth of the Christian Science movement with the passing years. By far the greater part of those who come to Christian Science for healing are so grateful for the relief experienced that it becomes their one impulse to spread abroad the good news that once again what is deemed impossible with men is possible with God, to urge upon the sick and afflicted that they seek this fount of living water and be healed; and thus the good work has gone on in ever-widening circles. There are those, however, who, having received the desired healing, go their way, unthinking and unthanking, even as did the nine lepers who in their affliction besought the great Physician to have mercy upon them, but stayed not to give God the glory when their prayer was granted. They could not see beyond the physical relief for the moment, and had no thought or care for others. To assume such an attitude as this is to debar oneself from the spiritual uplifting which in the Christ Science is the natural concomitant of the physical healing.
