Thanksgiving ELLA W. HOAG, CSD            It is quite appropriate that the Thanksgiving season should be associated in human thought with the harvest time. With fruition there naturally comes a sense of thankfulness and rejoicing. No heart is so dull that it does not feel grateful when some victory has been won, some honest effort has achieved success, some patient endeavor has reached fulfillment. What is true of the individual becomes equally true of the multitude, and many a time happy songs of praise ascend when triumphs have been recorded.          Paul, however, talks to us of thanksgiving under quite different circumstances. He says, "We glory in tribulation," and then he goes on to explain why; for, he says, "tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts." Now all this is exactly contrary to the human method of procedure, which starts out by saying: If I have the love of God in my heart I can have hope; if I can but hope I will be able to gain experience; with experience I can learn how to be patient; with patience, it would perhaps be possible to stand tribulation; and with such spiritual attainment I might be able to rejoice.          It is Christian Science and the individual demonstration of it which alone make it possible to lay hold of this demand and reap the glorious reward which results from obedience thereto. It is the revelation of Christian Science which unfolds the foundation of thanksgiving as based in so wonderful an understanding of Truth and its salutary action on the human consciousness that human belief is immediately reversed; and why? Because at the very outset Christian Science gives a vision of the reality of God, good, so that the falsity of a suppositional opposite is discerned in at least some slight degree. Then the necessary conclusion follows that the uncovering of evil by Truth must precede evil's rejection and destruction. To mortals this uncovering of evil may often seem like deepest tribulation, but to the student of Christian Science it is a proof of God's all-pervading care, since only thus can one ever hope to get rid of evil.          The Christian Scientist who clearly perceives that the operation of Truth always first uncovers, then rebukes, then eliminates what is unlike itself, will awaken to the joy of being thankful in tribulation. When it is understood that a truth discerned inevitably reveals the false nature of any supposititious opposite, one will no longer be disturbed at this uncovering of evil. If the rule of addition is understood, one is not troubled at whatever mistake may be presented for rectification; but rather rejoices in the possession of that intelligence which not only recognizes the wrong but knows enough to correct it and replace it with the right. With such a viewpoint, — a viewpoint which unfolds the possibility of making every least apparent tribulation an opportunity for proving the power of Truth to triumph over evil, — there can only be thanksgiving.          Christian Science teaches that it is Truth which shows evil to be evil, and if one sees evil thus he may always be assured that the same understanding of Truth which uncovers error is quite sufficient to prove the nothingness of the error. It is then easy to accept the truth of what Mrs. Eddy tells us in Science and Health (p. 66): "Trials teach mortals not to lean on a material staff, — a broken reed, which pierces the heart. We do not half remember this in the sunshine of joy and prosperity. Sorrow is salutary. Through great tribulation we enter the kingdom. Trials are proofs of God's care."          The demonstration of Truth as taught in Christian Science is bound to uncover the evil beliefs of mortals which, as has already been said, must first be seen before they can be rejected and destroyed. As we constantly remember that this operation in the human consciousness is the proof of God's abiding care and of His presence with us, — since it shows us the error which must be eliminated before we can attain the understanding of our perfection as the sons of God, — we can surely rejoice with all our heart when tribulation seems to come. We are thus afforded the occasion and privilege of proving the tribulation unreal and without presence or power. For after all, each belief in evil is but a temptation to admit a reality in what God did not make, what He does not know, and which we have God-given power to prove is as contrary to our real selfhood as it is to God Himself.          The true Thanksgiving then comes to those who can thank God for every opportunity to prove His presence and allness in spite of any and all the suppositional arguments which material sense may claim to present. To such as these there must come the bliss of proving the abiding protection of God, who, as Mrs. Eddy tells us in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 10), "has called His own, armed them, equipped them, and furnished them defenses impregnable. Their God will not let them be lost; and if they fall they shall rise again, stronger than before the stumble. The good cannot lose their God, their help in times of trouble. ... The best lesson of their lives is gained by crossing swords with temptation, with fear and the besetments of evil; insomuch as they thereby have tried their strength and proven it; insomuch as they have found their strength made perfect in weakness, and their fear is self-immolated."   "Thanksgiving" by Ella W. Hoag, CSD Christian Science Sentinel, November 22, 1919

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