Article October 18, 1919 Issue

From Day to Day

HARRIET MITTS ROSS

IN 1910, a short time before we were married, my husband and I became interested in Christian Science. He had drawn forty acres of government land and we were planning to be married and to make our home there. His land was covered with timber and lay close to the Colorado River, and it was necessary to clear and level it to prepare it for irrigation farming; and he was required by the Government to live on it five years before title could be obtained. Neither of us knew anything about farming, but we both wanted to live on a farm, and it seemed the right thing to do, so we made our plans to go. We had a little loose capital and some money invested in Los Angeles real estate, which, all told, would have been ample for our needs; but no matter how we tried, we could not dispose of our property without a very great sacrifice, and so we determined to go ahead demonstrating our way. We moved on to the land in December, built a little house, cleared and leveled ten acres, and had spent all we had. From that time on we were forced to make one demonstration after another for daily supplies, and no matter what the need Truth has never failed.

One time it was necessary for us to have something that cost, I think, two dollars and seventy-five cents. We did not have it, nor the seventy-five cents ferry charge which was necessary to go across the river and get the article. We both began declaring, "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need" (Science and Health, p. 494), and still doing his mental work my husband walked out into the front yard. Just then a neighbor came driving by and called to know if my husband was going to town; because, he said, he needed something badly and it was worth three dollars to him to have it brought out, and he would pay the ferry charge.

Another time we needed twenty-five cents for the Sunday collection. The Christian Scientists of the locality had organized a society, and we were giving fifty cents a week. Late Saturday afternoon, while I was thinking how infinite God is and how we would surely have the money—somehow I wanted our church collection money more than other things—again a neighbor came. This time it was a girl who was finishing a piece of embroidery, and as she had run out of thread, she wanted to ask if I had any of a certain size, and I looked and found just what she wanted. Then she offered to pay for it and although I told her she was welcome to it, she insisted and paid twenty cents. Then she asked if I could lend her a box of matches. I gave them to her and she said, "I'll just pay for them, too, and then we won't have to bother returning them." It was after she had gone and I turned my thought again to my problem that I realized I had the needed money.

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