Christian Science teaches, and its practice proves, that God is not a person in the ordinarily accepted sense of the word, but is divine Principle, absolute and everlasting, and that the action of Principle is expressed in perpetual, infallible law. The operation of this law is never affected by time, place, or circumstance, or by anything that may be said or done by any human being. Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 2), "God is not moved by the breath of praise to do more than He has already done, nor can the infinite do less than bestow all good, since He is unchanging wisdom and Love."
Now, since nothing can alter the operation of the law by which God is forever bestowing unbounded good upon His creation, since praise cannot influence Him to do more than He is already doing, then why are we admonished throughout the Bible and in all Christian teaching to praise God, to glorify Him, to sing songs of praise and gratitude? And why do Christian Scientists place so much importance upon the expression of gratitude in their Wednesday evening meetings? Undoubtedly, there must be some good purpose to be served in the exercise of these sentiments, even though they have no power to alter God's relationship to His creation. And we shall find that an examination of that purpose, together with a better understanding of the basis and nature of true praise and gratitude, will make the practice of these virtues more natural, more joyful, and even more effectual than ever before.
To quote again from our Leader (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 208), "Mortals have only to submit to the law of God, come into sympathy with it, and to let His will be done." Experience proves that as we succeed in putting this rule into practice we attain and demonstrate an ever increasing freedom from the perplexing problems of human experience, from fear and strife, from poverty and pain; and in their stead successively enjoy a greater measure of joy, peace, happiness, and health— in a word, life more and more abundant. Naturally, whatever helps to bring us into sympathy with the law of God benefits us; and in accomplishing this it is easy to show that gratitude and praise are indeed effective agents. In other words, gratitude and praise, while unable to change the operation of God's law toward us, do much toward bringing us into harmony with it. Hence they are indispensable steps in our progress heavenward.
Gratitude means "thankfulness for benefits received." Usually it is expressed after such benefits have been received, and is an acknowledgment of them. Gratitude is not commonly expected of one for benefits withheld or deferred, or merely anticipated. We are not often actively thankful today for something which we hope to receive at some uncertain future time but which is not yet forthcoming. A deferred gift does not call forth acknowledgment or praise. Only for benefits already received do we think we can be "honestly appreciative and give thanks. So it should be borne in thought that, spiritually understood, the true benefits for which we are grateful have already been received.
It is proper to recognize that in the human sphere gratitude is felt in different degrees of warmth or intensity. But in an honest heart, gratitude is felt for all acts of kindness or courtesy. In expressing thanks one recognizes the value of the good received. There is nothing selfish or improper in this. It is honest and just. Sincere gratitude in whatever degree, then, is not perfunctory, gratuitous, or the result of mere emotion, superstition, or secret fear of offending; it is not the attitude of sycophant or mendicant. It is the intelligent, conscious acknowledgment and evaluation of benefits received.
Now let us apply the higher concept of gratitude, as thankfulness for spiritual benefits already received, to our proper attitude towards God, as we are coming to know Him in Christian Science. Let us begin by recounting some of the known facts about God, about man as God's manifestation and likeness, and about the perpetual relationship of God to man, and man to God. Let us be firm and clear in our understanding that these divine conditions of being are not deferred, to be bestowed upon us at some future time or in a far-distant place, but that here and now they are present in all their perfection and completeness. "Now are we the sons of God." Now is God's creation perfect and complete; now is God's kingdom come; now is God's universe the only universe, God's being the only being, God's law the only law, and God's man the only man. Now is there bestowed upon us in truth all health, joy, and happiness; peace, abundance, and freedom. As God's children now we have, without measure, all the richness, beauty, loveliness, and grace of the kingdom of God. The might and majesty, the beauty and serenity, of His presence now are with us, and nothing other than God and His creation has presence or reality.
We need not wait for anything real and good. We need not look forward to a future world or for some more auspicious time or circumstance for freedom and happiness. We need not wait for God to be moved by the breath of gratitude or of praise to do for us something He has not already done, for He has already bestowed all good upon all. Thus good is already present, already bestowed, and already received. And not alone are the infinity, boundless freedom, harmony, and bliss of the divine consciousness ever at hand and already bestowed upon His image and likeness, man, but we should realize that no opposite condition, savoring of imperfection, inharmony, discord, or unlikeness to God, has any real existence or presence. Conditions such as seem to haunt human existence are not what they appear to be, not evil actualities, but merely false claims, devoid of substance or realness. Since God is All, and since there is no other presence, substance, power, or consciousness, there is no such thing as a state of mind or kind of consciousness cognizant of evil or error in any form. To Mind, not even a sense of evil or a belief of evil exists. The one Mind, God, knows no false beliefs, makes no mistakes, conceives of no error, is never misled or deceived. Hence a false belief or a state of believing falsely does not exist, and is merely a suppositional condition of a suppositional mentality called mortal mind. It is a mere hypothesis, not an actuality.
Could there be anything more wonderful than the perfection of being? Could greater beneficence be bestowed upon man than that which already is and always has been bestowed? Could any human being desire, or conceive of, greater riches than these, already in man's permanent possession? Could praise or gratitude bring about the bestowal of greater good than the fact that perfection has always been the reality of being and evil has never existed?
As we ponder this concept of being; as the perfection, magnitude, munificence, and glory of true existence unfold in our thought, and especially as we become convinced that these things are already present, here and now, we cannot fail to become irresistibly moved with deep and genuine gratitude for blessings already received without measure. And this gratitude springs not from mere religious fervor or shallow sentiment, but from an intelligent recognition and understanding of spiritual being, the actual, quite apart from the material or hypothetical.
And it is at this point that the practical effectiveness of the scientific sense of gratitude begins to manifest itself, because this perception and acknowledgment of spiritual actuality, giving rise to genuine gratitude, indicates the Christ, the very presence and action of Truth, the manifestation of Mind. As our Leader writes (Unity of Good, p. 7), "An acknowledgment of the perfection of the infinite Unseen confers a power nothing else can." True gratitude is an acknowledgment of the perfection and allness of God and His creation. Hence its effectiveness as a healing, redeeming agency.
Before he had brought Lazarus from the tomb Jesus lifted up his eyes and said: "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always." Thus Jesus expressed his acknowledgment of God's perfection and allness, and voiced his gratitude for benefits he knew were already bestowed upon man by the divine Principle of being. It was this recognition of the truth that enabled him with unquestioning assurance to rectify the human sense of death; and he commanded: "Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth."
Let us therefore endeavor to lift our sense of gratitude and our practice of praise to a higher plane than the mere acknowledgment of benefits humanly received in the form of temporal or material benefits. Let us lift it to a clear, constant spiritual perception of absolute divine reality, consisting of God and man, the full expression of God. This scientific sense of gratitude, this recognition and "acknowledgment of the perfection of the infinite Unseen," will lift us with infallible certainty to the attainment of higher and ever higher demonstrations of dominion over error, of our true selfhood as sons and daughters of God.
