IN the wilderness Christ Jesus was tempted to believe that bread was his basic need. His answer to evil's suggestion that he turn stones into bread should serve as a lasting correction to the human belief that matter is ever the basic need of mankind. He said (Matt. 4:4), "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." The Master understood that life is not in matter or dependent upon it, and he turned men to God as the source of all real being and sustenance.

Today, in the wilderness of confused material thinking, humanity is being tempted to believe that if the things it calls basic needs—food, clothing, and decent housing—are provided first, then individuals and peoples will progress toward happiness, political harmony, and cultural freedom. But this reasoning is not sound, for it omits the great facts which Christian Science reveals: that Spirit is the only substance, and that man lives by divine decree. When men acknowledge God as All and prove man's sonship with Him by loving, such human needs as shelter and sustenance are supplied in proof of the Father's law of provision. Mary Baker Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 263), "Always bear in mind that His presence, power, and peace meet all human needs and reflect all bliss."

Humane measures taken to care for the physical well-being of the oppressed and destitute are, of course, requisite. They show forth compassion and other merciful, God-derived qualities. But the mere possession of matter cannot guarantee progress that only uprightness of character can assure. In fact, its possession without righteousness leads to moral inertia and cultural death. Hence matter—lifeless, loveless, mindless—should not be considered the basic need of men. Furthermore, society cannot do for the individual what he must learn to do for himself—prove man's unity with God and demonstrate divine Love as the sustainer of life.

Spiritual understanding is a basic need of men. More precious than all costly material possessions, it is the true bread of Life which comes down from heaven and feeds mankind with the Christly substance of brotherliness, devotion to good, trustworthiness, and obedience to divine law. It destroys the spiritual ignorance that impoverishes mortals. It ennobles affections and leads humanity to recognize Spirit as the only origin of joy and abundance and health.

Righteousness originates in Mind, and man's eternal function is to exhibit it. Purity of motive, integrity, and unselfed love are inseparable from God and receive His blessing, His multiplication of spiritual power. The Psalmist was acknowledging righteousness as a basic necessity and assuring security to those who cherish it when he sang (Ps. 37:25, 29): "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever." If governments would recognize righteousness rather than physical well-being as the basic need of men and bend every effort toward the spiritualization of human thought, great prosperity would follow. Want would be unknown if all men would recognize love and intelligence as basic needs and diligently exercise them.

Demonstrable Christianity, or Christian Science, is the greatest need of mankind, for it alone evaluates all things correctly, showing Spirit and good to be real and evil and matter to be unreal. Through it men not only learn to love God supremely and obey the Golden Rule, but also learn how to utilize the forces of righteousness as law of destruction to evil and want. If the innocent often seem to suffer, it is because they fail to utilize as law the good they know and love. Not separating distinctly between the real and the unreal, or comprehending the falsity of matter and all that the physical senses evolve, they do not rise even momentarily into the divine state of consciousness which obliterates the illusion of distress and penury and reveals man as God's beloved son, replete with goodness and peace.

Christian Science is the quick and powerful word that is "sharper than any twoedged sword." The division Christian Science makes between spiritual reality and mortal illusion impels its students to search their thoughts and destroy the false concepts and characteristics that breed disease and poverty. It makes mankind active in love. It liberates the good which man embodies by removing the veil of material sensation that seems to hide it.

Mrs. Eddy says in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (pp. 126, 127): "One thing is eternally here; it reigns supreme to-day, to-morrow, forever. We need it in our homes, at our firesides, on our altars, for with it win we the race of the centuries. We have it only as we live it. This is that needful one thing—divine Science, whereby thought is spiritualized, reaching outward and upward to Science in Christianity, Science in medicine, in physics, and in metaphysics."

Science is leading humanity out of the wilderness of materialism. It is meeting the basic needs of men, sustaining them, and revealing increasingly the fact that man lives, not by fragile matter, but "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

HELEN WOOD BAUMAN