Albert Clinton Moon, C.S.B., of Chicago,
Illinois
Member
of the Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church,
The
First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
The lecturer spoke substantially as follows:
In the village of Shunem in ancient Galilee the power and willingness of God to save mankind from sickness and death was illustrated in a manner that has remained through the centuries an inspiring example of how righteous prayer brings healing to even the most distressing physical conditions.
While in the field with his
father, a much-loved son became desperately ill. The father had the boy taken
to his mother, whom the Bible, in the book of II Kings (4:8), describes as
"a great woman." She cared for her son tenderly till noon, but the
child died. This family was closely associated with Elisha, the prophet of God,
and so deep was the mother's appreciation of this good man that she had
provided a room in their home for his use whenever he might be in their
village. Her spiritual receptiveness must have first prepared in her heart a
place for goodness which made one who expressed such divinity a welcome
visitor. Hence she was prepared to accept the demonstration of God's healing
power which was to bless that family.
On the day of her son's passing, when her need of help was
extreme, her thought immediately reached out to the spiritual seer. Making no
explanation, she told her husband that she must go to the prophet. In reply to
his queries she answered (II Kings 4:23), "It shall be well." Did not
her turning to one whom she had recognized (II Kings 4:9) as "an holy man
of God" indicate that she glimpsed in some degree the fact that their help
must come from God's goodness and that His servant, the prophet, could utilize
God's healing law in their behalf? When she reached Elisha and was asked about
the welfare of herself and of her family, she steadfastly maintained what we,
through Christian Science, have learned is always the spiritual fact concerning
God's creation, that "It is well" (II Kings 4:26). Elisha, conscious
of her human need for help, went with her to her home. As he prayed to God on
behalf of the child, the spiritual facts of true being and the
indestructibility of God's creation became apparent, and the illusion that
something could destroy God's beloved child was dissipated. As a result the boy
was presented to his mother alive and well. Her steadfastness in seeking help
from the man of God when faced with the terrifying but unreal evidence of the
material senses showed her to be a woman of great faith.
The experience of the Shunammite and her son inspires us
today to turn to God in prayer in order to find surcease from that which is
unlike God. The story also inspires us to seek through prayer the realization
that the evidence of God's good will for all of His creation can become
apparent through demonstration here and now. The prayer of the Christian
Scientist is not a request that God will change what in His infinite wisdom He
has decreed. It is rather the scientific realization that God has decreed only
life and good for all. This state of thought is attained through scientific
petition, through the recognition of the perfection of God and man, and through
unselfed love. Such prayer brings healing to the sick and the sinful.
Jesus of Nazareth, the Founder of Christianity, the Master,
Way-shower, and Exemplar of all Christians, gave to mankind a cardinal rule
which, when scientifically followed, leads men to entertain the kind of thinking
that is productive of good results. He said (John 7:24), "Judge not
according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." This means
that we cannot induce what constitutes God's universe from what the material
senses testify. Rather we must deduce from the correct understanding of God
logical conclusions as to what comprises His creation. To judge rightly we must
understand that God, good, is Spirit and is true, and that everything which God
creates, including man and the universe, is spiritual and true. We must reject
as untrue or unreal all that is unlike God, all mortal error, including matter,
sin, disease, and death.
Christian Science is the answer to mankind's prayer that
they might judge righteous judgment, that they might know what is real and
true, and thus demonstrate good in their present experience. Much of the
so-called scientific knowledge amassed by mankind down through the ages has
been undependable, one day apparently true and the next day questionable or
false. Only what is exact, changeless knowledge is true science.
To reason correctly as to what is truly scientific in the universe one must understand the cause of the universe and the nature of that cause. Christians are monotheists. True monotheism must recognize God as the one and only cause of the universe. Jesus counseled mankind to know God and Christ, for in this way only could they learn God's will and have its fulfillment in their lives. He declared, according to John's Gospel (17:3), "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." He proved the truth of this statement by healing the sick and the sinful and by walking forth from the tomb after his crucifixion. In this latter occurrence false mortal sense lost its battle with the spiritual facts of being which Jesus knew comprised his real selfhood.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian
Science, discerned the spiritual import of Jesus' exhortation to know God and
His Christ. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with
Key to the Scriptures," of which she is the author, one finds clear
Christian teaching which enables him to know, to understand, God. Mrs. Eddy did
not judge after appearance. She did not accept the false belief that God, whose
essence is goodness, is also the author of sin, disease, and death, or that His
omnipotence permits the activity of a so-called devil or evil to tempt or
distort mankind.
Mrs. Eddy recognized that all reality is based on, and is
the expression of, God. She took the life and works of Christ Jesus as revealed
in the Bible as her perfect example. She found his teachings practical and
true, for they healed her at a time when she seemed in danger of losing her
life as the result of a serious accident. She sought and found in the Bible the
rules for demonstrating the truth of real being, proving Jesus' teachings
practical not only for herself but also for the healing of others who were sick
and sinful.
Jesus promised his followers (John 14:26) that "the
Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he
shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you." As one prayerfully studies the Christian
Science textbook and Mrs. Eddy's other writings in connection with the Bible,
he will know that the Comforter, whom Jesus also referred to as the Spirit of truth,
has come. For the Comforter presents the comforting knowledge that all may
follow Jesus' example and demonstrate Christ, Truth, in healing the sick and
sinful.
Mrs. Eddy revealed to this age the great truth which was
demonstrated by Jesus and in some degree by his followers: that matter is
actually unreal — that it is a misconception of reality. She discovered that
matter is a false, mistaken, limited belief, and that it has no more actuality
in our conscious thinking than the forms and images we see in a night dream,
which we readily admit are not actually present. All the discords that trouble
mankind are included in so-called mortal mind, whose product is matter. To the
degree that one becomes aware of the allness of Spirit, God, and the
nothingness of mortal mind and matter, he has removed from his thinking that
which is the basis of discord in his experience, and as a result the discord
disappears.
The understanding that matter is not at all what it seems to be is growing in the thought of the world. The Journal of the Telephone Industry ("Telephony," Mar. 31, 1956, p. 20, by Harold B. McKay) had an article about transistors in telephones. At the beginning the author quotes this statement from Science and Health (p. 468): "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter." Then he says, "As man gropes further into his material universe, it becomes increasingly difficult for him to describe the things that he thinks he sees." Mrs. Eddy, however, did not learn the unsubstantiality of matter through human invention. She discerned through spiritual revelation, reason, and demonstration what constitutes reality, namely Spirit and its creation. Awareness of the ever-presence of God and His Christ, God's spiritual idea or expression, leaves no place for matter. How can one find the way to judge rightly concerning the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science? By studying and demonstrating the truths found in her published writings, for these show the thoughts of God and man which she entertained and utilized in her healing work. Could any of us find a better way to know her than to understand what she actually thought concerning God and man? Proportionately as one learns the spiritual import of Mrs. Eddy's teachings and works, he will find his own true selfhood as the spiritual image and likeness of God.
Mrs. Eddy followed the Biblical injunction (Ps. 107:2),
"Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand
of the enemy." Her longing that all might share this redemption induced
her to found the Church of Christ, Scientist. As a means of enlightening
mankind she established the Lesson-Sermon found in the Christian Science
Quarterly, which is composed of selections from the King James Version of the
Bible and correlative passages from the Christian Science textbook. There are
twenty-six subjects for these Bible Lessons, each subject being used twice a
year. Each lesson is prepared from a fresh, vital viewpoint. One is not a
repetition of another, in spite of the fact that the subjects are repeated.
The Sunday church service includes this Lesson-Sermon read
by two Readers appointed, or elected, for a limited term, from the church
membership. Students of Christian Science faithfully study the Lesson-Sermon,
finding that it gives them their daily bread, that is, the daily bread of
spiritual enlightenment. Does this mean that students study the Lesson-Sermon
for themselves, then go to church and hear the same one read from the desk as
the Sunday church service? Yes, Christian Scientists do just that, and there is
a good reason for it.
Think for a moment of a very simple illustration. Suppose
that many people, each bearing a lighted lamp, were to enter, one by one, into
a dark auditorium. The first one to enter would brighten the auditorium a
little. The second one to enter would double the illumination. Then as three, four,
five, and finally all the lamps were giving their effulgence, would not
everyone present see his surroundings illuminated by the light of all the lamps
instead of by just the one he carried in? In the same way the accumulated
spiritual enlightenment at the Sunday service resulting from the devoted study
of the Bible Lesson during the preceding days blesses each one present,
providing a mental atmosphere of spiritual illumination, clarity, peace, and a
holy sense of God's presence that is productive of healing and regeneration.
A young man whose hands were covered with unsightly warts
started to attend services in a Church of Christ, Scientist. Although he had
not begun the study of Christian Science, yet after attending the services for
only a few weeks he found one day that his hands were completely free of the
affliction and have been ever since. As a result of this healing he became an
earnest student of Christian Science.
Little wonder that Mrs. Eddy thought of the Church of Christ, Scientist, as a healing church. She saw the need of mankind for spiritual enlightenment and provided, under God's direction, many avenues and instrumentalities for disseminating the truth. She founded weekly and monthly periodicals, which have interesting and constructive articles on Christian Science, together with carefully verified testimonies of healing. She founded an international daily newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor, whose high standard of journalism is bringing elevated concepts, a higher sense of truth, to all who read it. It is aiding its readers to think more constructively and spiritually, thereby bettering health and morals today.
From Science and Health (p. 465) we learn that "God is
incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life,
Truth, Love." All of these terms are either used in the Bible as names for
God or are necessarily implied. One may ask, "Is Principle used in the
Bible as a term for God?" No, not the word Principle itself, which was
introduced by Mrs. Eddy, but its true meaning is used in the Bible as a name
for Deity. A dictionary defines "principle" in part as "a source
or origin." Could we find a better word than Principle to explain God as
the source or origin of the universe, as the Lawgiver who maintains His
infinite creation in perfection, beauty, grandeur, and order? The other
synonyms used by Mrs. Eddy present God to mankind through such qualities as
intelligence, true substance, holiness, continuity, reality, love, manifested
in the fatherly and motherly affection which protects and blesses all.
Every man serves the concept of Deity which he entertains.
Some would dispute this statement, saying that they are atheists and have no
concept of God at all; but this is not true. God means good, and everyone
follows and obeys what in his heart he considers good for himself. He may not
worship the true goodness that is God; in fact, he may even follow a course of
evil, believing that it will bring him what is advantageous. One bows down to
what he believes will bring him what he wants or will give him what he needs,
and this is the deity or sense of good he worships, and to which he attributes
power.
Mrs. Eddy says in "The People's Idea of God" (p.
14), "As our ideas of Deity become more spiritual, we express them by
objects more beautiful," and she explains, "Thus it is that our ideas
of divinity form our models of humanity." The only salvation for mankind
lies in a true knowledge of God, an understanding of what is really good. As
they understand good, they will serve it and thus become the servant of the
most high God. This true service naturally brings with it a better sense of
health, harmony, and happiness.
A true knowledge of God as the source or origin of the
spiritual universe and spiritual man is true religion. What could be more truly
scientific or give one a more exact concept of reality than an understanding of
God, the source of all being? True religion and Science are inseparable, and
deductions which are not in accord with both are neither true religion nor true
Science. True Science must recognize that all actual power is in and of God.
The Bible tells us (Ps. 62:11), "God hath spoken once; twice have I heard
this; that power belongeth unto God."
Today there is much concern about the use of atomic power
lest a misuse of it bring about mankind's destruction. Speaking out from the
standpoint of inspiration more than sixty years ago, Mrs. Eddy assured us
(Miscellaneous Writings, p. 190): "Atomic action is Mind, not matter. It
is neither the energy of matter, the result of organization, nor the outcome of
life infused into matter: it is infinite Spirit, Truth, Life, defiant of error
or matter."
Christian Science affirms that God is omnipotent. Every
physical healing achieved through Christian Science (and they are legion)
demonstrates this truth in some degree. Hence mankind already has the proof
that, in proportion to one's realization and demonstration of God's all-power,
the evil effects of so-called material power can be nullified.
In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy states (p. 124): "We tread on forces. Withdraw them, and creation must collapse. Human knowledge calls them forces of matter; but divine Science declares that they belong wholly to divine Mind, are inherent in this Mind, and so restores them to their rightful home and classification." The spiritual fact concerning true power accepted into consciousness is manifested in that which helps and heals mankind. It destroys evil concepts as to what constitutes power and replaces them with the assurance that the only power really existent is the power of God. As this clearer understanding develops we shall, like the Shunammite, rest in the calm assurance that "It shall be well."
Man, the Bible tells us in the first chapter of Genesis, is
made in the image and likeness of God. What then can man possibly be except the
individualized manifestation of perfection, spirituality, goodness, and
holiness? In order that we may obey Jesus' exhortation to judge righteous
judgment and not judge after false material appearances, we must think of man
in terms of what he really is and see the perfect unity plus the perfect
distinctness of God and man as His likeness. God's creation is good, for God is
good; and it misrepresents our beloved Father-Mother to claim that a good God,
who is Spirit, is the Maker of an evil creation of matter, His opposite,
subject to sin, sickness, and death.
God has countless expressions of His own perfect Being, and
each expression is individual. King David sang (II Sam. 22:31), "As for
God, his way is perfect." The perfect cause of the universe can only be
expressed in perfection. Let us then not deny the perfection of God's creation.
What appears to humanity as material man is a mistaken concept, a counterfeit which,
to the extent that one has learned man's true spiritual nature, no longer
deceives him.
The material senses, which bear witness to the false
concept of man, are notorious prevaricators. Is there anyone here who has not
time and again proved to his own satisfaction that the evidence of his material
senses was not to be relied upon? Who that has believed his material senses
implicitly would take a train trip? These senses tell him that beyond the point
where the engine is the train tracks converge. But one cheerfully disbelieves
this false appearance because he is aware of the fact that the tracks do not
come together. Today Christian Science brings the demonstrable knowledge that
man is not what material sense says he is. It is spiritual sense, or the sense
of each one of us as actually a spiritual being, that destroys the belief in
materiality with its attendant sins and sicknesses.
God always remains the source or Principle of man. Man always remains God's creation or effect. God and man in God's image are always one in quality but not in quantity. Individual man is an individual activity of all the qualities of God.
Mrs. Eddy defines Christ in Science and Health (p. 583) as
"The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy
incarnate error." Since God is divine Mind, His eternal manifestation,
Christ, is actually His divine ideal, His Son. When one thinks that which is
spiritually true, he accepts God's thoughts as his own consciousness, and this
divine consciousness governs his human body, business, home, and supply. This
consciousness of Truth manifests itself in the healing of sickness, sin,
inharmony, and lack. This scientific demonstration is the salvation that Jesus
taught and demonstrated. It is strictly in accord with Paul's statement to the
Romans (12:2), "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by
the renewing of your mind."
In Science and Health we read (p. 561), "John saw the
human and divine coincidence, shown in the man Jesus, as divinity embracing
humanity in Life and its demonstration, — reducing to human perception and
understanding the Life which is God." To coincide is to occupy the same
place in space or the same period of time. Every Godlike thought and deed
proves the human and divine coincidence. Since God is ever present, He is
everywhere that man is. The scientific admission of God's all-presence and
all-power here and now brings the realization of this human and divine
coincidence, of humanity governed by divinity.
If one were looking at a motion picture screen and seeing a
distasteful picture, would one attempt to change it by doing something to the
screen? Would one attempt to wash it off the screen or to paint over it? This
would be useless, because the same picture would continue to fall on whatever
was in front of it. The only way that one could change the unpleasant picture
to a pleasant one would be to change the film that was in the projector. This
hints to us how we can correct our individual human experience. It is to change
our thinking, to have in thought the perfect ideal of God, the Christ, Truth;
then we shall see about us evidence of the presence of Christ. The inharmonies
which may have seemed to be very real, being removed from thought by the truth,
are no longer manifested in human experience. So let us change the kind of
thinking we have been doing, replace it with Christly thinking, and enjoy its
beneficent effects.
In our human experience we see what is on our own level. One evening after a lecture a young mother accompanied by her teen-age daughter and quite small son talked with me about some statements she had liked in the lecture. Her daughter also said she liked certain points that she felt could be applied to her schoolwork. Then the little boy, looking out from the level of his vision, said to me solemnly, "I like your pants!" Now it is all right for a youngster to be satisfied with a view that at the moment just takes in a pair of trousers, but maturity demands that a higher vision of spirituality be won and maintained, in order that true health and happiness may be discerned as man's present possession. We must raise our vision to spiritual heights, and then we shall see man as God knows him.
The question is sometimes asked, "Why do not Christian
Scientists rely upon material means for healing?" The answer is plain.
Mrs. Eddy has shown that sickness as well as sin is not caused by matter but is
the effect of erroneous thought. This fact seemed incredible when Mrs. Eddy
first gave it to the world, but today it is recognized in a large degree even
by those who look entirely to matter as a means of healing. We are frequently
told that worry, insecurity, and fear have produced this or that disease.
Drugs, serums, tranquilizers, and intoxicants may seem momentarily to give one
a sense of peace, courage, and security, but this effect is not permanent, and
their use multiplies one's susceptibility to the very materiality from which he
believes he is suffering. Each drug ingested enlarges one's belief that ungodly
matter is the arbiter of his existence. Christian Science recognizes Christ,
Truth, as the only healer of mankind's woes, whether physical or mental.
Permanent healing can only be achieved through entertaining
in consciousness true ideas or spiritual facts. It is vain to attempt to
harmonize existence with drugs, which manifestly have no intelligence. If two
men differed in their thought concerning a business deal, and one was desirous
that the other should view the transaction in the same light that he did, would
he give him an unintelligent drug to change his mind? Let us have in our
thought that which is Godlike and true, and we shall have health, harmony, and
abundance as a result.
It is not Christian Science to unite spiritual healing and
the use of drugs. God, Truth, demands unswerving allegiance to His Christ. Mrs.
Eddy tells us emphatically (Science and Health, p. 464), "Adulterating
Christian Science, makes it void." Void means ineffectual, empty, or
containing nothing; it does not mean not quite as much or as effectual.
Adulteration makes spiritual power of none effect in the experience of anyone
who attempts to unite it with the use of drugs for healing. Christian Science
practitioners do not physically diagnose disease; neither do they prescribe
drugs or material methods for healing. They utilize the spiritual truths which
Jesus demonstrated and which Christian Science explains in a completely
practical way. They strive to so manifest Christ, Truth, that whatever denies
the truth, such as sin, disease, or lack, is uncovered as completely erroneous,
as nothing, no thing, person, or condition.
A young woman came to a practitioner's office very ill with
what appeared to be influenza, an illness quite prevalent at that time. The practitioner
explained to her how God's divine influence or the Christ is always present and
that this fact precludes the possibility of any destructive or evil influence.
He also silently claimed for her man's perfect oneness with God and His
health-giving Christ. Later the young woman informed the practitioner that she
had been entirely healed during that brief visit.
Sometimes people mistakenly believe that it will help them
to be healed if they can just make the practitioner realize how ill they are. A
man so convinced asked me to give him Christian Science treatment for a problem
that seemed very real to him. He kept telling me in detail of the unhappy
situation and insisted vehemently: "Now I want you to get this picture. I
want you to get this picture." Finally, after his repetition of this a
number of times, I said, "If you succeed in what you are trying to do,
then you had better leave me and go to someone else, because if I have the
picture, how can I help you get rid of it? Anyway," I added, "I
thought you wanted release from this false picture rather than have two of us
have it. It you convince me of the reality of your illness, it can do neither
of us any good, but if you let the truth convince you that you are now actually
the spiritual son of God, healthy, happy, and harmonious, this will do you
good." He agreed that this was logical, and an improved condition
resulted.
A young lad came home from school with all the evidence of a contagious disease. Since he and his mother were students of Christian Science, they did not desire a medical diagnosis. But, in order to obey the law of the state, it was necessary for the matter to be reported to the Health Department. The physician in charge examined the boy and said that he had scarlet fever. The boy had no medical treatment and took no medicine. The Christian Science practitioner who was asked to help with the case did not accept this evidence of disease to be true or to be the effect of God. He did not judge according to the appearance — the appearance of scarlet fever — but he judged righteous judgment. He considered the situation from the viewpoint that God is good and all-power, and that man, God's image or expression, can have nothing unlike God. Audibly and mentally he insisted that right where this disease seemed to be was the perfect son of God, and that the boy was not really material and as such subject to material conditions such as germs or contagion. The practitioner recognized the spiritual fact that here was really an individual instance of God's qualities, beauty, harmony, fearlessness, and health. He continued with this spiritual knowing of the truth until in a few days every trace of the malady had disappeared. To fulfill the quarantine regulations, the boy was taken to the Health Department, where the physician admitted that, much to his surprise, there was no evidence of the disease. Naturally enough there were never any ill effects from the experience.
God, Spirit, is the substance of the universe. To know God
is to have the true idea of substance. This true idea reveals that God imparts
abundance to man just as willingly as He gives him health and goodness. One of
the grave problems that beset mankind is the false belief that they lack supply
— that there is not enough of anything, except the things that no one wants.
Since human consciousness sees what it believes, it judges according to the
outward manifestation of its own false sense. Because the false belief that
good is limited is often accepted by mankind, it is generally manifested.
Humanity erroneously judges that, because a few have abundance, this prevents
others from having enough.
Enlightened thought concerning true supply rests on the
fact that God is its real source. The limited or unlimited thought which one
has about supply determines the abundance or lack that is manifested in his
human experience. The only way one can ever correct a sense of lack is through
gaining the spiritual understanding of the infinite supply which God
continuously pours forth. To the degree that one gains a spiritual
understanding of spiritual abundance, he is able to demonstrate a better sense
of supply in his everyday life. True supply always comes direct from God to
each individual. The world seems humanly organized on the belief that supply
comes from other men, and if these others are not graciously inclined toward an
individual, then he is faced with a situation wherein he cannot expect to have
adequate supply or proper position. God's ideas are never in conflict. Each man,
each spiritual idea, expresses God in an individual and original way that is
altogether lovely, and that expression is his true position.
God has given each one an individual instance of supply
that is illimitable, spiritual, changeless, ever present, and always available.
Can you imagine people warring with each other over the use of arithmetic? The
greatest enemies, so-called, are in perfect accord on basic mathematical facts
because they see them as ideas. No one fears that one nation can deprive another
nation because it uses these ideas, or that one individual can deprive another
individual because he uses these ideas. True supply is spiritual and infinite;
so why not admit that you can enjoy it and that everyone else can enjoy it at
the same time?
Because supply is infinite, our human sense of supply
multiplies with the correct use of divine ideas. Supply seems to diminish with
use only because people believe that it is material, that there is only so much
of it, and each use of it diminishes it.
We have all seen one person fail in a business and another
one take the same business and make it a success. Why is this? Because one
judged according to the appearance, judged according to the false, material
concept that he was entertaining; while the other may have recognized business
as actually the activity of God, the activity of good, even though he may not
have consciously known that God and good were the same thing. At least he saw
it as a good activity, therefore he loved it because he loved good, and he saw
this good manifested in a way that met his human need.
When we use the human manifestation of supply joyfully to
pay proper obligations and thereby acknowledge that we have received good, we
open the door to a larger sense of supply. The money one uses to pay his gas
bill is not actually his supply. It is merely a symbol agreed upon by mortals
for acknowledging the receipt of the gas. The gas is the supply which he needed
humanly, and when he pays for it, is he not scientifically saying, "Thank
you for the gas," and paving the way for continued supply of this
commodity? The more of spiritual good that one gratefully acknowledges, the
more he has to enjoy. The Bible tells us that we should give "not
grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver" (II Cor.
9:7), and this applies also to the payment of our human obligations.
A student of Christian Science proved this in his own
experience. It was at a time when he found himself with very little supply and
in the midst of a depression. One day there was a small bill to be paid. The
thought came to him that he didn't have to pay it right away, that it could
wait until the first of the next month; that would still be plenty of time to
give it to the one who had rendered the service. But then he thought,
"This individual gave us the service when we needed it, and he didn't ask
us to wait until the first of the next month to render it." He said to
himself, "I acknowledge at this moment what has been given me," and
immediately paid the bill. He did it joyfully, declaring that in paying his
righteous debts he was evidencing the fact that all that is really good comes
from God. After the payment was made he found himself with just two dollars,
which was his sole capital. At other times this might have made him quite
fearful, but because of his great desire to pay his just obligation and
joyfully to acknowledge infinite good as ever present, he felt very happy about
the situation.
On his way home he met a man on the street who told him
that he had been trying to reach him for some time to pay him some small amount
that he owed. The student had not gone more than two blocks before he met
another individual who also had owed him a small amount, and this was paid.
When he reached home he found in the mail a letter containing a check for some
service previously rendered. Between the place where he had paid his
indebtedness and his home, he had received more than three times the amount he
had paid out that day.
Now what had really happened? By using his supply and
seeing that it really represented a divine idea, he had enlarged and multiplied
his own sense of supply. He had thereby destroyed in some measure his fear of
lack. Of course his improved spiritual sense of substance was manifested in his
experience as a greater evidence of supply than he had started with when he
first thought of paying the obligation. He laughingly told a friend that night,
"I believe I could be a millionaire if I could just pay enough
bills!"
How true it is that our human experience is thought
objectified. As we look out from the spiritual viewpoint of God's goodness, we
shall be aware of good. As we look out from the heights of Soul, we shall see
that Soul's infinite resources are constantly being showered upon each one of
us. Let us no longer blame people or circumstances for any lack we might
experience. Let us think rightly about abundance. Let us recognize that
spiritual abundance is natural to man, God's likeness. Let us realize that
God's law of supply is capable of demonstration in the experience of each one
of us.
Let us not put off our recognition of life abundant. Our
beloved Master said (John 4:35), "Say not ye, There are yet four months,
and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on
the fields; for they are white already to harvest." Supply of every good
thing is wherever we are, because God is right where we are, and true supply is
spiritual, not material. Christian Science has revealed that the fields of God
are now white with the harvest of abundance, and this abundance can be
demonstrated by humanity. His fields are always white with the harvest of
health, harmony, and supply for each of His children, and this truth is
demonstrable today.
Let our thought be rightly enlightened with the truth that men and nations are really God-ordained to dwell in peace, and we will contribute to this end. We owe God the demonstration of His truths, and we pay our just debt to Him by knowing the spiritual truths that overcome beliefs of sickness, sin, and lack. By recognizing that God is all-power, all-presence, all-substance, we accept the loving provision of our Father-Mother God and see His will demonstrated in our present experience in a way that abundantly meets all human needs.
[Date delivered unknown, probably circa 1959-1961.]