Editorial December 13, 1913 Issue

"Abundantly satisfied"

John B. Willis

The explanation of a vast range of human experience has been given us in Mrs. Eddy's terse statement on page 365 of "Miscellaneous Writings," that "mortal mind is calling for what immortal Mind alone can supply." An unquenchable desire for happiness, and an inherited false sense as to what will satisfy this desire,—these constitute the fundamental factors of every tragedy of history and of life: Who could sum up or picture the laborious effort, the ceaseless and ofttimes utterly selfish struggle of men for that which never has brought content and never can, and this for the reason that human consciousness has a divine element, a capacity that speaks for God, and that can know no peace apart from Him.

The ideal concept of man which is revealed in Christian Science,—this and this alone bases a true philosophy of life, and until one has gained it, he is a prey to the insatiable demands of ungratified want. It is with such that the prophet Isaiah was rebukingly pleading when he said, "Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness." Christian Science is at one with all Christian faiths in declaring the goodness of God, but it is quite unique in its insistence that "no wisdom is wise but His wisdom; no truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is Life but the divine; no good is, but the good God bestows" (Science and Health, p. 275). Not only the supremacy, but the alone-ness of God with respect to the supply of human need, is here given Scripture emphasis, and seen to be vitally related to human happiness. He alone "satisfieth the longing soul," and when with the psalmist we can say, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee," then our feet have surely entered the paths of peace.

Theological statement has abundantly affirmed this fact, but the hearts of Christian people have been very tolerant of its contradiction. They have associated much that is classed as good with other things, and sought for it in other directions. How true this is of the pleasure which we have all so sedulously and so continuously tried to secure. How little is God thought of today, by the average Christian man, as the source of pleasure, the fountain of every-day joy, and yet this sense of Deity as "delightsome" is as old as David, for he sang, "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart."

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