What student of Christian Science at some time in his experience has not had to face a condition that appeared not to yield to his most earnest efforts? At that point he has perhaps longed for the added spiritual impetus that would enable him to overcome the situation which confronted him. Such an impetus may be found in the following words from the Bible (Ezra 7:20): "Whatsoever more shall be needful for the house of thy God, which thou shalt have occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king's treasure house."

In "the king's treasure house," God's infinite store of spiritual ideas, there is always available the added inspiration and truth which are needful for us to have in order to gain a clear vision of the house of our God, or consciousness of harmony. From this treasure house we may draw the divine truths that counteract and correct false material beliefs. Certainly in the largess of this great sum of spiritual facts there can be no depletion, no exhaustion, no lack of adequate understanding to meet any claim of fear or failure.

What we need to recognize is that it is not man but God who is responsible for health and harmony. You or I may declare the truth, but it is God alone who sustains that truth and causes it to be manifest in human affairs. We may affirm that man is well, whole, and free. It is God alone that keeps him so. When we realize that it is not we ourselves who are responsible for man's well-being, but God, we shall be relieved of any anxiety or discouragement that would confront us. To gain this realization we have but to receive and utilize the spiritual ideas that God, good, confers from out His treasure house.

No greater manifestation of God's abundant supply of spiritual ideas has reached human thought than that which is available in the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. These two books, studied in conjunction, set forth in unmistakable fashion the divine law of God, omnipotent Love, which is wholly adequate for the destruction of any discord. To the seeker after the fundamental verities of existence they constitute an inexhaustible storehouse of truth. He who partakes regularly and understandingly of their treasures will never find himself impoverished in inspiration or lacking in ability to help himself and others.

Can there be any discouragement for one who is accepting his inspiration and intelligence "out of the king's treasure house," out of Love's divine provision for its own? Indeed there cannot. Whether the healing is immediate or is long in coming, he who knows that his part is steadfastly to reflect Truth and Love will never be dismayed. Happily and confidently he leaves the issue in the hands of God and is not afraid. Hear this rebuke to discouragement given us by our Leader, Mrs. Eddy (Science and Health, p. 329): "To be discouraged, is to resemble a pupil in addition, who attempts to solve a problem of Euclid, and denies the rule of the problem because he fails in his first effort."

When the courageous David went forth to battle with the giant Goliath he took with him five smooth stones. Had his first throw been ineffective, surely he would not have hesitated to use another stone, and another, and another had the need continued.

The Christian Scientist can be just as persistent in his application of the truth of being. If the desired result is not attained in one treatment, or in many treatments, he need not doubt the certainty with which Truth will destroy the error. As he earnestly, honestly, faithfully, insists upon the divine facts of being he will find that no Goliath of false belief can withstand the message of Truth that goes forth from hallowed thought.

That our dauntless Leader never approved of a discouraged yielding to error is indicated in the following incident occurring in one of her classes and recorded by one of her students (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, First Series). Referring to Mrs. Eddy, the student writes: "She asked one woman what she would do if she were treating a case that did not yield. The answer was, 'I would examine my own thought.' Mrs. Eddy then asked her what she would do if the case still did not yield. The woman answered she would handle animal magnetism. Again Mrs. Eddy repeated her question, and the woman said, 'I suppose I'd give it up.' 'And that,' Mrs. Eddy said, 'is just what you should not do.'"

We should never give up to error. We need never do so; and we will never do so if we remember the source of the verities we declare. Not from our own human intellect, not from the accumulated knowledge of men, do we receive and express healing thoughts. They are the emanations of the divine Mind that is God, and we affirm His truth joyously and expectantly, knowing full well that we "bestow it out of the king's treasure house."