Article September 1, 1934 Issue

Our Real Income

ANNA SCHROOT

In a time like the present, when the whole world is speaking and thinking about unemployment, when so many people are in doubt about receiving an income or, even worse, seem not to have any at all, it may be helpful to consider what income is in reality, according to the revelation of Christian Science. The word "income" is defined in part as "that gain which proceeds from labor, business, or property." What are our labor, our business, and our property; and how do we get gain from them?

One day, while sitting in the garden, the writer saw a bird busily gathering his food, and the thought came: "What does he know about being anxious or ill at ease? Does he suffer from these? Certainly not, he has all he needs." This bird did not sit still and wait for what he needed to come to him, for the whole day long he was laboring, hunting for his food, at certain seasons building his nest, afterwards taking care of his little ones, and every now and then singing a glad song. A clergyman, speaking of the lilies of the field, according to the words of Jesus, pointed out that they do not toil or worry, but that they certainly do their part. While sending their roots down into the soil, they turn their leaves to the sun to catch its light and heat; they gather the dew and the rain on their petals. They do all that can be expected of lilies, he said, with the result that "even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

Is not this a hint of what we are called upon to perform? Mrs. Eddy tells us in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 13), "If our petitions are sincere, we labor for what we ask." All through the Bible we find this illustrated. When the Israelites stood before the Red Sea and Moses prayed to the Lord, the word came to him: "Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward." They had actually to acknowledge that God is ever present Love, that He is always able and willing to help, and then they had to act accordingly by turning their backs on the Egyptians and going forward. By their divinely directed effort, and in the measure of their obedience, the children of Israel escaped from the bondage in Egypt and eventually found their way into the promised land.

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