Article August 6, 1910 Issue

"DEMONSTRATING SUPPLY"

MABEL S. THOMSON.

This phrase, "demonstrating supply," is one which is so often on the lips of students of Christian Science, and indeed is used sometimes in such curious connections, that one is tempted to wonder if the speaker always understands its meaning and what it implies. Behind it, as a matter of fact, lies the whole of the problem of money, with all its ramifications in social economics. To deal fully with such a problem is, of course, beyond the scope of this article and of its writer, but possibly some aspects of it, as it affects the student of Christian Science, may be touched upon and bring to light ideas which may help to elucidate the whole subject.

One of the first points which presents itself in the unfoldment of Christian Science, is the fact that all the standards of value to which the mind has been accustomed have to be changed and adjusted, the money value probably first of all, and at once it is seen that money has been given an entirely wrong estimate by mankind. Instead of being regarded as a symbol it has become a thing, a power, and men love it, and fear it, and desire it, and think they can do nothing, and worse still, think they are nothing without it. And yet any one who gives thought to the matter can see, without any metaphysical knowledge, that such a position is false, for no one can really be any richer than the amount he can use, no matter what his banking account may be, and therefore fundamentally his wealth is bounded by his mental concept of life and its desires and uses. Whatever he possesses beyond what he can make use of in the way of progress is, to all practical purposes, dead loss and waste.

Again, to take an instance which is probably familiar to every one, of two people occupying the same position in life, under the same conditions with the same income; one will always be rich and have plenty, while the other will always be poor and "hard up." It is impossible to explain why, except that each case is the outcome of the individual mentality, the mental concept, and money has nothing to do with it. These are, of course, very general statements, but if the student of Christian Science who is faced with the problem of "demonstrating supply," will take some such line of argument, he will realize that far more than just earning enough money to keep him in bread and butter is required if he would really solve the problem. The first thing to see is that the concept of money as substance must be changed. In and of itself money is nothing but a false sense of substance involving error, and only if this sense is touched by Truth to the uses of good in human experience, can it even symbolize substance.

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