Editorial June 4, 1910 Issue

INCREASE

Editor

We are often reminded in modern times of the proud boast of the Laodiceans, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;" and of the stern rebuke of Spirit, "Thou ... knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." There are many who have earthly possessions in abundance, yet feel themselves to be miserable indeed; and again there are millions who believe that supreme happiness would be theirs if they had all the material things which they crave. It is certainly true that no one can be satisfied with poverty or limitation, but it is no less true that no one can be satisfied with materiality, since desire for it enlarges with possession, and oftentimes he who starts out to be a ruler of men becomes in time a slave to his wealth. Yet all the while the law of increase is a fundamental law of being, and as such it cannot be set aside.

All through the Scriptures "increase" is promised as the result of obedience to God's law, and Christian Science explains how we may attain the "blessing of the Lord" which "maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it." Christian Science teaches that we can find our true selves only as we reflect God. No one would ever think of God as being poor, but even with the faintest gleam of spiritual light we can see that the divine sense of possession must be wholly unlike that of mortals. God possesses all that is real, as Mind, Spirit; therefore He forever says, "Let there be." Creation is forever unfolding from the creative Mind, and even on the human plane we have a hint of this ceaseless activity, for without it the whole universe would be resolved into chaos. No one who reflects the divine activity can fail to express in some degree the divine sense of possession, and it was doubtless to this that Paul referred when he said, "All things are yours."

There are some who mistakenly think that the earthly life of Christ Jesus was characterized by poverty, but the Gospel narratives fail to sustain this belief. It is true that his early environment was lowly, but we read that as he advanced in years he "increased in wisdom," also "in favor with God and man." While he counseled his followers to lay up treasure in heaven, he also told them that all their needs were supplied by their heavenly Father, whose lavish bounty he illustrated by the lilies of the field. He taught that in order to avail ourselves of this bounty we must seek "first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;" and that then all other things would be added. He also illustrated the law of increase in the parable of the talents, in which he severely condemned the one who charged his poverty to the lord who had supplied him with the one talent. Jesus called him "wicked and slothful," and we may well beware lest we be robbed, by the errors here indicated, of our divinely bestowed right to increase.

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