TRUE gratitude for good is always meaningful. It is always able to express itself. Frequently, healing comes as we express gratitude for blessings already received, because this leads consciousness away from mortal beliefs. Gratitude is a conscious love of God. Ingratitude springs from the acceptance of a false concept of man as a mortal.
The Master, Christ Jesus, did not expect us to be grateful for a misconception or for a false mental argument about man as cunning, mean, treacherous, unhappy, deceitful, and wicked, subject to sin and death. But the revelation of Christian Science is explaining to the world the baseless falsity of this concept by bringing to light the truth of man, as God made him, the forever expression of harmony. As we understand this we see how normal and natural is the inclination to express gratitude for good.
And where does the incentive of this healing expression of good come from if not from divine Love, God? This is surely why gratitude for all good is always struggling to articulate itself as if it were forever prophesying: One day I shall witness humanity's full release from bondage to matter. One day all the world will witness this release, and there will be no room left for animosity, bitterness, or hate.
How often the earnest expression of gratitude for God-bestowed blessings in the past has awakened thought to the greatest blessing of all—the healing ever-presence of the eternal substance of divine Love! Many can recall that the singing of a hymn has silenced a discordant condition. Others can testify to the silent conscious rejoicing in the truth of God and man, which has lifted them above the fear of error or the sting of its injustice.
Even the problem of despair has been solved by the simple voicing of gratitude for a healing or for protection and guidance in Christian Science. One thing is certain: No illusive suggestion of discouragement has power to overshadow the kind of thankfulness that approximates the healing acknowledgment of divine Mind's presence, meaning, and message to man.
How effectively Christ Jesus illustrated this point before the tomb of Lazarus! The despair and grief of his friends boasted of hopelessness. Only the strongest gratitude for God's presence could pierce the mesmeric mirage of this unhappy situation. And we read (John 11:41, 42): "Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me." Such understanding trust and gratitude had to be made articulate and convincing so that the people could perceive the significance of Truth's power to awaken the dead.
Gratitude to God must naturally include an equal thankfulness to the Science that brings the Christ into human consciousness. Our articulation of praise to our Maker is itself God-given. Harmony is always the result of this expression.
Our gratitude implies that we have seen and felt the light of understanding. Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 94), "I never knew a person who knowingly indulged evil, to be grateful; to understand me, or himself."
True gratitude cannot be submerged in the darkness of self-ignorance. Gratitude never looks to matter for support or release from burdens, for it is coexistent with the substance of Spirit and is at peace with itself. To be indifferent to the spontaneity of the Christ is to deny our gratitude to Spirit. But the hunger of the human heart for any touch of spirituality evokes a gratitude that cannot at first be uttered. Every time, however, that we listen gratefully to the expression of Truth, our ability to express our gratitude increases.
A little over a year ago, our little girl, very early in the morning, woke up in great distress. She was suffering from a high fever and gasping for breath. It was a challenge to our understanding, but we were steadfast in our stand for the truth that the Christ could rebuke and destroy this alarming picture. Being a pupil in the Christian Science Sunday School, our daughter knew that we were together in our reliance on God for deliverance. We all prayed earnestly for what seemed a difficult ten minutes.
Then our thought more consciously took hold of the refuge of uplifted gratitude. We were grateful that Life is intact, untouched by fear of aggressive suggestion. We were grateful that there is in reality no time in which a distressing dream can enact itself.
We mentally affirmed our gratitude for Christian Science, which pointed to the child's identity as something sacred and exempt from this attack. We were grateful to know that action, viewed spiritually, is perfect, unlabored, and free; that in spite of the frightening evidence, the child's life, independent of the body, was expressing natural harmony. The attack could not touch it.
Against this general pattern of gratitude, we specifically denied the seeming danger of the belief. It became clearer to us that the lie was a lie, a falsehood, an aggressive but powerless illusion, incapable of endangering anyone's identity or life.
The distressing condition began to assume the role of a fading, insubstantial dream. The significance of the gratitude for our daughter's true perfection became more apparent, and within the hour she was asleep again, breathing naturally. Gratitude for the truth tends to clarify thought, lifting it above the illusive fear that life can ever end.
The writer is grateful for membership in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, that expects all its members, from the first time they are interviewed, to include in his or her daily spiritual duties the expression of true gratitude. This requirement is based on the following statement of Mrs. Eddy's in the Church Manual (Art. XVII, Sect. 2): "Gratitude and love should abide in every heart each day of all the years."
Our inspired Leader knew that prayerful gratitude for the truth of God and of man lifts up the standard of Christian Science, and the unprejudiced heart knows it, hence learns to love it.
In a published note Mrs. Eddy makes this wise observation (Pulpit and Press, p. 21): "Go not into the way of the unchristly, but wheresoever you recognize a clear expression of God's likeness, there abide in confidence and hope."
To a typical Wednesday testimony meeting in all Christian Science churches and gatherings throughout the world, the stranger or visitor may come, feeling altogether welcome. Indeed, he may rest "in confidence and hope" that he will receive the utmost spiritual refreshment, for at any of these meetings he will hear from the Bible and Science and Health the inspired Word of God and from the congregation he will hear grateful testimonies of the healing power of this inspired Word. The stranger may well feel a release from burdens through these expressions of gratitude for the ever-present Christ.
