Article December 10, 1932 Issue

Substance and the Problem of Unemployment

[Original article in German]

ELFRIEDE CHARINER

"Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay." Thus our revered Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, elucidates the nature of substance on page 468 of her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." How can this fundamental truth help us to view correctly the problem of unemployment, and so contribute to its solution?

First of all, we must ask ourselves, Does this wonderfully broad concept which Mrs. Eddy gives us of substance agree with the concept generally accepted? The reply must be, No. From the standpoint of Christian Science substance is spiritual, but the world in general believes it to be material—material possessions, money. What connection has this so-called substance with "that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay"? What is more unreal, uncertain, and fluctuating than material conditions of supply and demand? Today the problem of unemployment and its troublous train has become so grave that people everywhere are perplexed by it. The solution lies in replacing the false concept of substance by the true.

Substance is not material; substance is spiritual. "Truth, Life, and Love are substance" (ibid.). Truth is substance, shown forth in the truth that man is created in the image and likeness of God and is maintained by his creator. Can anything wrest man from the sustaining power of God? Is there another power besides God, the sustaining All-power? Life is substance; Life without beginning and without end. Life, God, cannot be limited by finiteness, for the finite cannot bind that which is infinite. Love is substance, pouring forth good to all God's creation like an inexhaustible fountain. Human sense cannot fully comprehend Love because it is infinite. We catch a faint gleam of it when some kindness is done us, or when we see men good and helpful to one another, see them trying to lighten life's burdens and helping to bear them. It was Love which, reflected by our Master, Christ Jesus, enabled him to feed five thousand hungry people, to heal the lame and the leprous, to waken the dead to life. "And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace."

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