Article October 14, 1939 Issue

Our Human Needs

WILLIAM MACNAGHTEN MACDONALD

When Mrs. Eddy wrote in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 494), "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need," she set forth in simple language a truth of vital import to humanity. Statements such as this, which challenge the generally accepted views of life, are met in many quarters with incredulity. The Bible, of course, abounds in promises of good things to mankind, but their practical fulfillment has often been considered remote from daily experience. Release from tribulation and the prospect of peace in some vague hereafter have, in one form or another, been part of the doctrine taught by the churches. But such teachings exhibit a wide divergence from the inspired declarations of Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy's statement quoted above conveys a definite promise, realizable here and now.

Human needs are, indeed, the daily concern of men and women the world over, in their ceaseless struggle to rise above the anxieties of life. Everywhere mankind is faced with problems, all too often seemingly insoluble. No mortal is free from the besetment of fear in one form or another.

In the midst of such troubled conditions Mrs. Eddy has challenged the mesmeric beliefs of evil, claiming to hold the world in thralldom, with the assurance that, whatever the erroneous condition may be, divine Love, understood, will banish it. Asking God, Love, to meet a human need, suggests a belief of lack; but this lack can only be a want of understanding. If any human need seems to be unmet, this must be due to ignorance; and if we look through the lens of Truth, the trouble will be disclosed as a mortal illusion, as an erroneous suggestion that Truth is not ever present.

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