Mrs. Eddy tells us that "Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind" (Science and Health, p. 60), and this great truth is surely no less applicable to what may be termed the financial problems of our churches than to those of individual Christian Scientists. Christ Jesus certainly furnished several definite illustrations of the fact that God is really the source of all true supply; and that the early Christians understood in large measure the spiritual law of supply and demand is proved by the statement in the fourth chapter of Acts: "Neither was there any among them that lacked."

It is so customary for organizations in the business and the political world to present budgets of expense for work to be done that it is perhaps no more than natural that churches should adopt the same practise when outlining the work and expenses for any subsequent year. In the great majority of cases scarcely any other course would seem sensible, much less feasible, to a board of trustees, composed as it usually is of men of experience and proved good judgment in the business world. Not one of them would think of embarking in any enterprise without knowing that he had a sure source of supply to enable him to carry his project through to a successful issue. From a purely business standpoint he would consider himself foolish to attempt this without adequate financial backing, and some might say, Why treat a religious enterprise in any less businesslike way?

Doubtless this attitude is a wise one where an enterprise, be it in commercial or church affairs, is projected on a business basis. But the question arises, Should religious enterprises remain permanently subject to these methods? Does not absorption in and dependence upon such methods inevitably lead to the relegation to the background of the vital, fundamental fact that God is the source of our supply? Startling as this question may be to church-members, is it not true that it searches more deeply for the basic truth in the case than is pleasant to mortal sense? Is it not too often the case that more dependence is placed upon business ways and means than upon the Giver of all good? If so, should it be surprising that certain church-members rich in this world's goods feel called upon to give, and often do give more liberally than they perhaps should, or at the close of the church year make up deficits which should not have appeared? Does not this condition of affairs indicate a lack of trust that God will provide means for the manifestation of His own work?

The Bible is full of cases of individuals who proved that God supplied their every need. The barrel of meal and the cruse of oil did not fail to supply the necessities of life to the widow, her son, and Elijah, who trusted implicitly in God. The psalmist was so imbued with the thought of God's resourcefulness that he declared he had never "seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." In a still more striking way Christ Jesus did not find it necessary to consider material ways and means, to be influenced by the thought that it was essential for him to have in hand any specific sum of money or any estimated number of loaves and fishes before he could prove God to be the certain and limitless supply of every good and perfect gift. Today the individual Christian Scientist knows that these and countless other instances mentioned in the Bible are true, because either he or his friends have proved that God is here, now, supplying every need as it arises.

If we accept the premises that God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniactive,—in a word, infinite,—we must know that He is unlimited in any and every way that knowledge, presence, power, and activity can be truly expressed. He is not humanly circumscribed. There is no possibility of lack, want, poverty, or restriction to His constant, inexhaustible abundance. He has done His part in placing infinite resources at our disposal; it is our function to utilize them. But unless the recognition precedes the demand, the supply will not be forthcoming; for, as we read in the epistle to the Hebrews, "He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." We do well to keep the fact constantly before thought that increase of understanding is not in proportion to increase of supply, but increase of supply is proportional to increase of understanding. There is an almost antipodal difference between these two statements, a difference that decides the flow or the check of the supply; for when one knows that man does not live "by bread alone, but by every word of God," there is no hesitancy in calling for the supply to meet immediate needs, and it is only present needs for which we have occasion to ask at any given time.

Countless individuals who have adopted Christian Science methods of thinking and praying have proved little by little that everything favors the manifestation of God to those who really trust Him, and that the very channels which previous disbelief, mental blindness, or erroneous thinking declared to be empty, are really running bank full. Furthermore, they have proved that the utilization of their individual supplies does not lessen the flow either to themselves or to others; on the contrary, it really increases the blessings that become manifest to all. Their increase in capacity to secure and to utilize their supply, grows in direct ratio to their correct use of that supply and to their recognition of and thankfulness to God as the source of all blessings, even those which come in disguise.

Christian Science churches are just as individual as Christian Science students. To be sure, they are made up of individuals whose real aims are identical, but they stand for the highest thoughts or ideals of all those individuals. In no sense must they be considered as representing the average ideas of the congregation, because this would imply a mixture of superior and inferior qualities; whereas none but the superior qualities can be spiritual, and thus be entitled to place in the real church, "that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science" (Science and Health, p. 583).

For these reasons trustees, as representing the best and noblest ideals of the congregation, should ever maintain and seek to lift the thought of all to the spiritual ideal and bring it into practical relation with this problem of supply. They should ever seek to lead their brethren away from dependence upon material means and methods. Their aims should be to prove that no need can exist in the actual and infinite presence of supply, that supply is ever available, because God is ever present, and is the sure rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. They should have and should frequently express unqualified confidence in God, so that both they and their brethren may look to God alone with calmness, expectancy, and confidence to supply every need, and that abundantly; for we are assured that out of Love's bounty a table is prepared for us even in the presence of our enemies.

Copyright, 1914, by The Christian Science Publishing Society.