Supply

HENRY RISELY TUCKER

In seeking to overcome a sense of lack, one may sometimes find it difficult to turn completely away from the claims of discord. This may be due in part to doubt as to the availability of Christian Science to deal effectively with the problems of daily life. Doubt can be promptly dispelled, however, by a review of past proofs of the power of Truth. These, when recalled, give an overwhelming answer to any suggestion of doubt. Even those who know but little of Christian Science have always the testimonies of healings given at Wednesday evening meetings and in the Christian Science periodicals to refer to. Such experiences denote recognition of the actual presence and activity of good, which recognition goes far in healing.

Then, again, one may be hindered by the tendency to keep in touch with the enemy; that is, to keep in remembrance the specific claim of error. Now the method of Christian Science healing is the declaration and realization of the present reality and availability of good and the unreality of evil—the unreality of lack in this case. If we keep turning mentally to the error, instead of away from it, we are tending to hinder the healing work. We must understand that the claim of error is a fiction, which is destroyed not by doing something to it, but by understanding the opposite fact, or the truth. Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 261), "Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts."

Turning, then, completely away from the claims of error, we can ponder and realize the true facts. God is All; and the universe consists of His ideas, each directly controlled and sustained by Him and reflecting Him. Unlimited good is the fact which God knows, and which the real man also knows by reflection. Man is conscious of the presence and activity of good—as love, wisdom, activity, purity, power, or any of its other aspects. Good can never fail, because it comes directly from God, and is dependent on nothing else. As we need good we may have it. The real man is spiritual; therefore he does not depend upon material circumstances. His needs and their supply are not material, but spiritual. The whole mortal sense of things is an illusion, which claims at every point to deny the spiritual and real. The truth is that good is infinite; and man is conscious of this. Evil has no power or intelligence to deceive man, and it cannot therefore stand before the understanding of good. This truth, firmly held to and applied, displaces the material lie, and demonstrates good in human experience. The externalized false belief gives way before the evidence of harmony due to right understanding. After Jesus had warned his followers against anxiety over the supply of their daily needs, he said, "But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you."

Now, although this mental declaring of the truth may bring a prompt healing of a discordant condition, the work is not finished. We must put our understanding actively into practice in daily living. Since all good comes from God and is reflected by man, our healing will be manifest in greater spirituality; and our motives thereafter should indicate more of love, and less of self. Having declared that there is no lack of love or of any other spiritual quality, we should expect to see criticism, rivalry, and resentment go down before the truth. When we realize that supply comes directly from God, our work on farm, in office, or in school becomes a purer expression of right activity.

Thus we can prove in one problem after another that all evils are destroyed by holding fast to our understanding of Truth. Not alone is greater harmony experienced, but each successive demonstration paves the way for a higher one, and so helps the whole world on towards freedom from all error.

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