Article May 14, 1904 Issue

The Multiplication of Nothing

W. C.

The story is told of a millionaire's daughter, who said to her father, "If you will give me a cent to-day, and twice that amount to-morrow, and so continue to double the amount each day for a month, I will never ask you for any more allowance." Allowing thirty-one days for a month, a compliance with this request would have made the father indebted to his daughter to the amount of $10,737,418.24. This seems almost incredible at first thought, especially to one inexperienced in mathematics, but the working out of the problem can bring no other result, and with patience it can be proved almost as easily by a child as by an adult. To state to the average person, however, the enormous result of such a multiplication usually elicits an emphatic denial of its truth.

In much the same way the testimonies of Christian Scientists are first listened to with incredulity, but those who have patiently worked out the lesser problems, step by step, very soon perceive that the farther one advances the greater become the demonstrations and the more astonishing the results.

By way of suggestion, it will be a practical help for beginners in Science, and especially children, to work out the above example on paper, each for himself, so that he may see how small are the results for the first fifteen or twenty days, and then how, in the latter days of the month, the doubling of the amount, rapidly jumps up to the enormous sum named. When a beginner says, "See, I have multiplied two by two and the answer is four," the observer may laugh and say, "That's nothing, any one can do that," and thus too the doubter looks with ill concealed ridicule upon the demonstrations of the beginner in Christian Science, but as the continuance of the process of multiplying by two results in a surprising increase, so will persistence in the demonstration of Christian Science give the greater manifestation of the power of Truth.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

The Multiplication of Nothing

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access