The Best Alms of All

SHARON SLATON HOWELL

Humanity's ills seem so widespread that sometimes we may not know where to begin to cure them.

Some think charitable relief is the full answer. A timely donation can for a time help someone in need or help give him a start toward becoming self-sufficient. But there is a more effective way to contribute to mankind's needs. It is to awaken the individual's thought to the spiritual truths that can lift him out of his plight.

Mrs. Eddy writes: "A certain apothegm of a Talmudical philosopher suits my sense of doing good. It reads thus: 'The noblest charity is to prevent a man from accepting charity; and the best alms are to show and to enable a man to dispense with alms.'"^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. ix;}