The word "economy" can generally be accepted as meaning orderly arrangement through wise management of the affairs of an individual, of a home, business, or church, of a nation or of the world. Christ Jesus showed us how true economy can be established in human affairs through spiritualization of thought and deed.

Take, for example, the subject of supply and demand. Occasionally we hear of overproduction of goods or, on the other hand, of a lack of supply to meet human needs. Jesus proved that demand and supply are balanced, for he demonstrated the law of divine economy, as it is revealed in Christian Science, when he fed the five thousand despite the evidence of lack. The Way-shower proved in that and other experiences that God, Spirit, constantly supplies all good for His creation and that sufficient supply is ever available to each one of His ideas.

Through spiritual ascendancy, Jesus nullified the false laws of matter or the carnal mind and proved that the laws of the divine economy are ever available to correct the discordant conditions of human economy based on the fluctuating belief of mortality.

The Christian Scientist knows that in the realm of God, divine Mind, all is balanced, all is maintained, all is ordered by divine law. The relations of all ideas are perfect, harmonious, God-inspired, reflecting the action, usefulness, and co-operation of divine Love itself.

In Christian Science we learn that there is never any overaction, inaction, discord, or delay; never any misunderstanding, disarrangement, mismanagement, or conflict in the universe of God's ideas. All good is available to each, and each idea is immediately available to bless all. Thus we gain a glimpse of the order, goodness, and perfect activity of the divine economy.

To know these facts and to maintain them consistently in thought in spite of a disordered economy, whether in the home, in business, in the body, or in the world, is to begin to demonstrate how divine law operates in human affairs through the power of the Christ, the true idea of God.

Depression, disorder, lack, dishonesty, and domination have no part in God's kingdom. And to say that there is less good or less health, less wealth or less business, today than yesterday or last year is to accept the belief that there is less or more of God than there ever has been.

God is unchanging Principle, the source of all supply, relationships, health, and right activity. Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, gives us a glimpse into the divine economy in the following statement (Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 82, 83): "Immortal Mind is God, immortal good; in whom the Scripture saith 'we live, and move, and have our being.' This Mind, then, is not subject to growth, change, or diminution, but is the divine intelligence, or Principle, of all real being; holding man forever in the rhythmic round of unfolding bliss, as a living witness to and perpetual idea of inexhaustible good."

The human economy includes the study and management of such activities as the production and distribution of goods, the relationship of capital and labor, banking, trade, taxes, supervision of property, transportation, and many other activities in the daily affairs of men. It also deals with the conduct of governments and the field of international trade and monetary activities.

In the Bible, especially in the Ten Commandments and in the Sermon on the Mount, we find many helpful laws and rules which, if spiritually understood and consistently obeyed, bring harmony and health to the economy of mankind. One such rule, given by Jesus, reads as follows (Matt. 6: 25): "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on."

Mrs. Eddy wisely writes concerning the government of the body (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 228), "If we follow the command of our Master, 'Take no thought for your life,' we shall never depend on bodily conditions, structure, or economy, but we shall be masters of the body, dictate its terms, and form and control it with Truth."

The instruction that one should take no thought for his life may be applied to any problem in the human economy, as well as to bodily care and conditions. However, Jesus did not mean to convey the thought that men should be inactive and "just let things unfold" without any effort on their part.

He was advising his followers not to be fearful or troubled about their daily supplies and about the ordering of their daily affairs. He left a very definite rule for action, whereby immeasurable good comes into the human economy, when he said (Matt. 6:33), "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

Thus we see that through the search for and the understanding of the divine economy in the kingdom of God, we find the way to the establishment of an ordered economy in the affairs and relationship of mankind.

In Science and Health we read (p. 423), "Both Science and consciousness are now at work in the economy of being according to the law of Mind, which ultimately asserts its absolute supremacy."

Harold Molter