Article June 28, 1919 Issue

Substance

EDWARD EARLE DANIELL

Two instances in the experience of the writer have strengthened his faith in the practicability of Scriptural admonition and counsel and have tended to lessen the fear of lack through a clearer understanding of substance. On page 170 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" Mrs. Eddy, in an address to Christian Scientists congregating at her home on a memorable occasion, said: "I would present a gift to you to-day, only that this gift is already yours. God hath given it to all mankind. It is His coin, His currency; it has His image and superscription. This gift is a passage of Scripture; it is my sacred motto, and it reads thus:—Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.'"

One Sunday I was attending service in a Christian Science church at a shore resort. When the time came for the contribution I realized that I had too little change in my pocket to give, and as I reached for my wallet to take out a bill the suggestion came to me that I could not afford to give the amount that would be necessary under the circumstances, that after all the bit of change would suffice as I was giving liberally to the church of which I was a member. My training in Christian Science, however, came to the rescue quickly. At once the sense of limitation was detected, and in the few minutes I had before the contribution plate would come to me I set to work to heal this false sense of substance.

I reasoned thus: Since money is a medium of exchange, a symbol of supply to the human sense that can see no farther, if I were to put the bill in believing that in so doing I was depriving myself, the effect would be that in my own thought I would be limiting the church as much as myself. In other words, I would be declaring for the church as well as for myself that supply was material and therefore limited. Such a theory would be inadmissible. The truth of the matter must be just the reverse of this false argument. In this new aspect what I would be putting into the contribution plate would be a representative of values and would express a sense of God's infinite supply.

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