Article December 15, 1923 Issue

Substance

LATITIA CORNELL HERRLING

Among all the shifting beliefs of human existence there is none more unstable than that of substance. To a journeyer who has not as yet even glimpsed the promised land of fixed spiritual contentment, the struggle for material substance, and yet more material substance, seems to be the end and aim of existence. He accumulates, after great effort and sometimes with the loss of self-respect, what to mortal sense seems substance enough to last him all his days. Then, like the one of Bible times who built barns to house his material riches, conditions arise which rob him of the benefits he had expected to derive from the substance procured, and he learns the bitter lesson that material substance can never bring lasting pleasure. What he deems enough for his necessities one day seems inadequate the next. The pleasure of a day may soon turn to discord and unhappiness. Because of this, one's concept of substance is constantly shifting, until at last he becomes weary of the search for material pleasures and possessions.

To such a one Christian Science brings relief from his troubles; for it supplies a new concept of substance, which is wholly spiritual. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 468) Mrs. Eddy says, "Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay." As this truth begins to dawn on the awakened consciousness, one realizes that the eternality of true substance is one with the eternality of God; and that the reflection of God means a reflection of true substance, a reflection constant and unfailing. Whatever the nature of supply, the solution is the truth that God's man continually reflects all the attributes of God, and that never is man less than a complete reflection. As one ponders this, one learns that his substance is independent of material conditions. Through the spiritual realization of man's unity with God he becomes alert to his spiritual blessings, and denies reality to all material law, finding that in proportion as he does so, he is blessed.

No longer striving for mere enjoyment, he finds that his substance at any instant is sufficient for his needs; that it is fixed and constant; and that as he perceives the truth and practices it, he realizes the fulfillment of the promise, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." Fear and worry abate; peace and harmony are his in the degree he applies his spiritual understanding of his blessings, as God's idea. Perhaps he realizes that he has previously looked to personality for supply, and has thus unconsciously added a burden to his brother's load. This wrong belief corrected, he sees that his supply is dependent upon his correct view of God and man's relation to Him; and this frees him from the error of depending upon any person. Thus he learns another lesson which Mrs. Eddy has taught (Science and Health, p. 206), that "whatever blesses one blesses all." Outgrowing his limited sense he finds he has sufficient for his needs, and plenty of opportunities present themselves whereby he can aid those who have not as yet realized the true sense of supply. As he relinquishes the false material sense of substance, he becomes the possessor of what Paul calls "a better and an enduring substance." He has learned the truth contained in Mrs. Eddy's teaching (Science and Health, p. 518), "The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another's good."

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