Arizona republican., 1917-04-23
GRATITUDE
fThe Christian Science Monitor

(The Christian Science Monitor)
 The maker of dictionaries who de- fined gratitude as the attitude of being grateful gave utterance to tremen- , dous anG unquestionable truism. He was, however, at least on sounder me taphysical ground than some of those who have entered into more relative particulars, such as the politician who explained that it was your feeling to- ward the man who had supported you when he knew that you were wrong. The fact, of course, is that gratitude, l like every other human sensation, is the counterfeit of some spiritual eX- pression. Accordingly, exactly as the human mind is governed by Principle in that proportion gratitude reflects the absolute Truth, and not the whirli- i gig of material passions.
 l Spiritual creation is necessarily the | image and likeness of divine Mind It | is clear, therefore, that true gratitude can only exist as the reflection of that | Mind, and must be devoid of any taint of physical grauucation. In other words. 1 it is the inevitable spiritual comple- ment to a perception of Principle. EV- cry realization of Truth, that is to say. which passes through the human mind is accompanied by d corresponding re- | plete complement of the completeness Sof that realization of Truth. The more degraded the human mind, the more { blunted it's appreciation of Truth, the more material of necessity becomes it's | comprehension of gratitude. The meta l physical aspect of this was expressed l almost perfectly by Shakespeare, in'the famous speech in which POlOnius poured out his wisdom to his son Laer- | tes:-
 This above all: to thine own self be true
 And it must follow. as the night the Thou canst not then be false to any ! man..
 In the relative physical law of the phy- sical universe. night follows day no l more inevitably than. in the mental realm, gratitude assumes the complex ion of the human m.nd's knowledge of l Principle. 'Ye shall know the truth" Jesus said, and the truth shall make you free" free that is to say from limited human sense of values. which is one of the limitations of a human sense of Truth.
 The human minG, in the very nature of things, is grateful for things which are far from being innocuous to it. It is, indeed, polemical question whether its gratitudes is not in proportion to the deleterousness of the favor conferred It is grateful, out of measure, for the qualification of it's lusts and appetites: grateful, beyond words, for protection 1 from the effects of it's own wrong do- ing. On the other hand, it is notonous- ! ly ungrateful for correction or disci- pline in any degree. This is so obvi- ously the case that Mrs. Eddy writes on page 571 of Science and Health Tt | requires the spirit of our blessed Mas l ter to tell man his faults and so risk human displeaSure for the sake of do- ing right and benefitting our race" Now this is simply because man does ] not usually understand Truth suffi- ciently to know when to be grateful and when not. Praise. no matter how bla- | tant, how insincere, or how undeserVed finds a response by reason of the fact that lack of metaphysical analysis leaves the recipient under the impress 1 Slon that the son can do something apart from the Father; in other words that effect is it's own cause. It is just this absence of metaphysical critical analysis which prevents man judging righteousness judgment. Yet. apart from righteousness judgment, true gra- titude is an impossibility. The human mind knows neither what to be grate- fui for, nor how to express it's grati- tude. White the heart" Mrs. Eddy writes, on pages 3 and of Science and Health, is far from divine Truth and Love, we cannot conceal the ingrati- tude of barren lives"
 This, of course, means that gratitude is an essentially active quality It is the reflection of Principle, and so of divine Mind, which is the ions ct origo, the quintessence of all activity. Con- sequently, the more complete the ex- pression of divine Mind becomes in the individual the more active is the in dividuars expression of gratitude A mans gratitude, in short, must be in exact proportion to his demonstration of Truth, which demonstration is, in turn. dependent on, what the Greek of the New Testament terms his scientific knowledge of God. Truth. This was made wonderfully clear in the career of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth come to be known as Jesus the Christ because he knew more than any other man who ever lived of the Christ. Truth. This knowledge necessarily fit ted him more than any other man to demonstrate Truth. These demonstra- tions took the form of what are known IS the miracles, the Latin word mira a- cuium signifying simply the demonstra- : tions of old of the Pagan philosophers. They were, indeed. just what the Greek Testament calls them: signs to those
 whose materialty was sufficiently eliminted to permit them to grasp their significance, works of power to those educated to believe in the tremendous power of matter. In Jesus case how ever, they were also expressions of gratitude to divine Principle. and it is here that there occurs one of the signs of the gulf stretched between spiritual
 healing and suggestion. The healer by means of the spirit of God. Truth, eX- tpresses in healing his appreciation of the fact that, as Jesus said, the Son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do, and consequently the demonstration of the power of Truth involved in healing is a demonstration l of gratitude to the Father who heareth us always. The woraer oy suggestion
 on the other hand, is endeavoring to
 work out his own ends in reliance or
 his own mental force and does not la .
 bor under the compulsion of gratitude
 This lconspulsion of gratitude ex-
 pressed itself in every one of Jesus
 miracles. and most of all in that of the conquest of death upon the cross. Jus
 as hIs realization of the unreality of