What demonstration is and is not

“Divine Love is the substance of Christian Science, the basis of its demonstration, yea, its foundation and superstructure,” writes Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, pp. 357–358). Christian Scientists love to testify to how divine Love’s care and provision have been proved in their lives. But sometimes we may inadvertently focus on the thing provided, forgetting that what has actually been proved is the allness and infinite goodness of Love, God.

Clara Knox McKee, a worker in Mrs. Eddy’s home, recounts this conversation with her: “One day while I was busy in her room, she was reading a letter; looking up, she called me and said in substance, ‘How do they demonstrate money and furniture?’ I replied, ‘I do not know, I was not taught that.’ Then, as I recall, she said: ‘Thank God you were not. We demonstrate Life, Truth, and Love, and they give us our supplies; we do not demonstrate material things’ ” (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Expanded Edition, Vol. I, p. 465).

Mrs. Eddy was referring to students of Christian Science who testified to their many demonstrations of God’s goodness in the form of human needs met. Perhaps they had reported that they had “demonstrated” a lovely home or financially sound employment or a healthier body. So when I read this reminiscence, I was a bit puzzled. I’d had many lovely experiences of human needs being met through prayer. Had I been thinking of those demonstrations in a wrong way? What had really been demonstrated?