Article December 25, 1954 Issue

MEETING THE HUMAN NEED

MARGUERITE EMILY BUTTNER

All human needs can be met. Christ Jesus proved many times that men's needs are met by turning to God. In his Sermon on the Mount he stated simply (Matt. 7:7), "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Mary Baker Eddy, who has shown us how to use the Bible, tells us in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 494): "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demonstrated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good."

Since divine Love meets human needs, it is to divine Love, God, that we should turn for what we need. Whatever the human need was, Jesus found its supply by acknowledging God's power, and the supply was in a form that people were able to understand. Jesus was able to spend forty days in the wilderness without food before he gave his Sermon on the Mount, because he understood that God alone sustains man. But his students, who were just learning about spiritual realities, found that they must learn to overcome lack. And they found that all good came to them in a form they could understand.

When we turn wholeheartedly to omnipotent Love, the one God, we become the beneficiaries of all that we need and desire. Turning to God requires more than the repetition of words. We must strive to express such Love-derived qualities as kindness, gratitude, helpfulness, co-operation, and generosity. Selfishness shuts out receptivity. Every act of giving helps to prepare one for good to come. We must in all of our activities follow through by expecting good. Is not this what Jesus meant when he said (Mark 11:24), "What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them"? To think that poverty is a virtue to be endured with patience —grateful only that things are not worse—is to misunderstand the power of Love.

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