Article August 18, 1934 Issue

Our Possessions

HERBERT W. BECK

"What is he worth?" asks the passer-by about a reputedly rich man. And the reply often recounts a list of solely material things, which, if accounted true, would rob men of spiritual qualities, and thus lessen their wealth of good. Much of human endeavor fosters a getting instead of a giving habit. Young and old attempt to get, by fair means or foul, those things which vanish with the using. Yet, failing to learn this lesson, humanity keeps on in its effort to acquire what it cannot keep.

The present world-wide conditions expose the futility of a wrong sense of possession, which piles up riches only to see them go down. This material wealth cannot be maintained with certainty; it may be here today but gone tomorrow. Relatively speaking, money has value as it is circulated, as it is spent. In other words, to procure anything with money one must part with money. How fleeting is all this; and yet what a mad race there is after this material so-called substance! Only when the world learns the lesson that real substance is not to be found in any form of matter, but in the realm of Mind alone, will the problem of supply be solved.

Recently a student of Christian Science testified that he had had a sense of lack for years, but one day, while looking at a silver dollar, he realized that it had no intrinsic value, that its worth was what was given it, and so it was unstable and temporal; that true value was only in spiritual ideas. And he resolved that he would honor real value and no other. Holding to this true sense of values, he soon found his former sense of lack dissipated, and had a plentiful supply for all his daily needs.

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