Article October 28, 1933 Issue

Able to Give

CLARA MABLE SCHMITT

We are all able to give. Why is this so? Because our Father-Mother, Mind, is the fount of ideas; and this fount, Mrs. Eddy tells us in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 2), "is pouring forth more than we accept." We receive and reflect right ideas. True receiving makes possible true giving. When we see this, the ideas received through divine intelligence operate to meet not only our spiritual needs but our human needs as well. Nothing has happened to man's giving power, because nothing has happened to his receiving power. We can say with truth that our ability to give is measured by our receptivity to spiritual ideas.

A radio receiving set receives the music or message to which it is attuned, and great care is exercised that there be no obstruction or hindrance to its proper receptivity. It should be so with individuals. Whatever we receive, take into our thought, we consciously or unconsciously give or reflect to others; hence the importance of being receptive to the truth only. Receiving God's ideas opens the way to express true wisdom, and individuals learn how to act according to the intelligence which subordinates matter and brings forth the manifestation of God's abundance. It is, therefore, important that we see the relation between receiving ability and giving ability.

A Christian Scientist from whom material income had been cut off found herself in great fear; but a former experience of healing through the power of Christian Science reassured her, and gave her the hope that deliverance from this difficulty could be accomplished by the same power. Exercising faith in her understanding of the power of God's ideas to supply all needs, she concluded that business failures and economic depressions had no power to lessen or diminish her ability to receive God's ideas, and that the ability to give, to pay, or to discharge indebtedness is a God-given ability. With a feeling of gratitude she came to the conviction that a fuller understanding of the law of supply as explained in Christian Science would meet her need. She tackled the problem with courage. Daily God's spiritual ideas were sought and put into practice. Her sense of work became spiritualized, and gradually the sense of dependence on others gave way to steady reliance on God. As the spiritual ideas which were supporting her quelled her fear and encouraged even greater trust in God, she began to give to others. This giving resulted in bringing to her the activity and work which made possible an enlarged sense of substance and the provision for her daily needs.

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