HAVE YOU CONTRIBUTED?

TULLY NETTLETON

By radio, television, newspaper publicity, and by mail, Americans have been urged during the last several years to give money to organizations conducting campaigns against one or another of a series of widely dreaded diseases. These appeals are motivated by a desire to benefit humanity and to reduce suffering by the means with which the sponsors of the funds are most conversant.

The Christian Scientist may take these requests for philanthropic purposes as a reminder that humanity at large is very much in need of healing and that doubtless many individuals are reaching out mentally for the truth of God and man which will enable them to counteract disease without medicine or surgery. He is taught that illness is not a fact, but a false belief to be destroyed, since the spiritual man, made in the image and likeness of God—as the Bible declares him to be—does not include any element of discord or pain. It is the mortal or physical counterfeit which seems to manifest inharmony to the extent that the human consciousness accepts the false picture of disease drawn by ignorance and fear.

This basic explanation of disease and its cure is given to mankind by Mary Baker Eddy in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." It is in accord with the healing method of Jesus, who said to the woman with the issue of blood (Matt. 9:22), "Thy faith hath made thee whole." Through Mrs. Eddy's explanations and through the enlightened faith in God which eliminates human fear, thousands have been healed of the most severe maladies.

Mrs. Eddy has made it clear that love—the manifestation of the divine Father-Mother's love for His spiritual creation—is the essential element in healing and that the function of a Christian Scientist is to express that love to all mankind. Consequently when a Christian Scientist is reminded of human suffering his desire is to contribute to its alleviation. He is glad to give to necessary civic charities. But he also has a further means of aiding the unfortunate with particular effectiveness.

To the crippled man begging alms at the gate of the temple, Peter said (Acts 3:6), "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." That was the most effective gift the disciple could have bestowed on him, for it restored to him instantly the ability to walk. Money could not have accomplished this.

Those who have experienced Christian Science healing and seen it bring recovery to others—not only physical benefit but also moral improvement and release from enslaving character traits—will feel that they have a more efficacious and uplifting remedy to present to mankind than material research can yield. To them the call to give in the combating of disease is a call to remember spiritually, prayerfully, what they understand man to be.

"Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements," writes Mrs. Eddy on page 475 of Science and Health. And she further says, "Man is spiritual and perfect; and because he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so understood in Christian Science." By recognizing and understanding this truth regarding man the Christian Scientist makes a contribution to the welfare of humanity at large and helps to meet the specific need wherever a hungering heart is reaching out for spiritual support and healing.

If he wishes also in practical ways to help make Christian Science known and available to the millions who need it, he will gladly contribute financially to the activities of his local branch church and to the funds of The Mother Church. Such giving is a natural expression of the desire to contribute to the relief of mankind's ills.

In such contributions it is true that the spirit is more important than the size of the material gift, though the giver will wish, of course, to make the amount as liberal as possible to correspond to the motive. When the contribution is accompanied by love, this fact multiplies its effectiveness. He who takes time to accompany his gift with a kindly, sincere prayer for humanity will merit the same approbation which Jesus gave to the widow whom he saw cast two mites into the temple treasury (Mark 12: 43), "Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury."

The greatest gift is that which not only involves sacrifice but carries much of the spirit of the giver. To pray the prayer of understanding for all who need and desire it takes not so much a sacrifice of time as a sacrifice of human, physical beliefs. It requires consecrated recognition and remembrance of the fact that man, true man, is spiritual and God-sustained. Insofar as one gains for himself a firmer conviction that God never made disease, that man has only what God gives, and that divine Love governs man, he helps diminish the formidable claims of disease. That is a contribution beyond any monetary terms of measurement.

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