Editorial January 3, 1925 Issue

God Satisfies the Desires

Ella W. Hoag

All men are longing to have their desires satisfied. Indeed, ordinary human existence seems made up largely of formulating desires and then working to bring about their gratification. The happiness or discontent of the world is supposed to be almost entirely dependent upon the fulfillment or failure of the heart's desires. And yet, how numerous are the unsatisfied longings, even when one's fondest wishes appear to have been carried out completely! How many are the earthly purposes fulfilled which bring only bitterness and disappointment! Men sometimes spend years in an endeavor to achieve a greatly desired end, only to find that the winning of the goal is but the destruction, rather than the attainment, of any real satisfaction.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 257) Mrs. Eddy exposes the reason for all this failure when she asks the question, "Who hath found finite life or love sufficient to meet the demands of human want and woe,—to still the desires, to satisfy the aspirations?" And on pages 60 and 61 she proclaims the remedy for all dissatisfaction when she declares: "Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul. Higher enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of immortal man. We cannot circumscribe happiness within the limits of personal sense. The senses confer no real enjoyment." All this agrees with the Psalmist when he tells us that he will be satisfied when he awakes in God's likeness, since he was sure that God satisfies "the desire of every living thing."

To the Christian Scientist all this is quite clear theoretically; for even though he may have grasped only some small portion of the letter of Christian Science, nevertheless its inexorable logic assures him that since God includes all good, nothing truly satisfying can be found outside of that good. It is, however, one thing to accept this logically and quite another to turn continually from sense to Soul for all profit and pleasure. And why? Because "finite life or love" are still sometimes deemed by him sufficient "to still the desires, to satisfy the aspirations." The voice of material sense has not yet been fully silenced; but instead, it would still insist to him that it does give that which is desirable.

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