PLENTY

M. BETTIE BELL

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.—St. Paul.

It is a demand of Christian Science that we "work out" our own salvation, and when our work is well done we are rich in mercy, gentleness, peace, honesty, and spiritual plenty. A thought of poverty should never be admitted as a reality, any more than a thought of sickness. The Master said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." The door of plenty is not closed to us if we knock with vigor. Plenty comes through industry, obedience, faithfulness, understanding, and demonstration. Plenty is the hope of spiritual sense, and the fruit of salvation worked out. If we have plenty of wisdom, love, charity, forgiveness, and humility, we are rich in heavenly treasure, equipped for spiritual work, clothed with the garment of salvation, and filled with the ripe fruit of righteousness. God will give us plenty, and more than plenty, if we daily work, watch, and pray for the Mind to be in us "which was also in Christ Jesus."

In the Lord's Prayer is the plea, "Give us this day our daily bread;" in one of the psalms of David is the assurance, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want," and in Proverbs is the promise, "He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honor." Together with this plea, assurance, and promise, we are to know there is no gaunt want or famine in the house of God. We as God's children are enriched with the bounty of the Word. We must cleanse our thoughts from the desire of material plenty, be willing to surrender self-longings, give up our idols of self-expectation, release our hold on self-demands and "lay hold on eternal life;" then will divine plenty pour into our consciousness and fill it with the riches of God. To talk and express poverty is an evidence that we are reflecting the errors of sense and have not found the golden ore that bespeaks true riches and plenty. When we think plenty we will talk and reflect it, and poverty is dismissed from thought as plenty is realized.

It should be our daily and willing duty to keep the search-light of Truth busy until every presumptuous sin is overcome. Then will our consciousness be so clean and pure that we shall express and reflect the plentifulness of divine Mind. The wisest man said, "He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough."

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