Unfailing Abundance

MAUDE DE VERSE NEWTON

A student of Christian Science was troubled with an oppressive sense of fear, discouragement, and limitation. In her round of household tasks she paused at a pantry window, through which in the early morning she had tossed pieces of bread for her feathered friends. A loud cheeping arrested her attention, and she observed a fledgling standing in the very center of a slice of bread and demanding food with insistent calls.

The amused onlooker had a sudden revelation that she herself was doing just what the young bird was doing—asking for more in the midst of abundance. She began to realize that the infinite source of good was just as near to her and her loved ones as what it was calling for was to the fledgling. She asked herself what was obstructing her realization of this substance, and the answer, both for herself and for the bird, was—ignorance. In facing the question of ignorance, she saw that man, as the image and likeness of God, reflects divine Mind in unlimited wisdom, understanding, and discernment. As she dwelt on this spiritual fact, she found herself released from the bondage of belief in lack, and awake to the joyous freedom that was hers as the child of God.

Christ Jesus said, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." On page 590 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy defines the kingdom of heaven, knowledge of which the gentle Nazarene strove to establish in the hearts of his followers, as "the reign of harmony in divine Science; the realm of unerring, eternal, and omnipotent Mind; the atmosphere of Spirit, where Soul is supreme." Not gold and chattels and fine raiment and rich viands, but the kingdom of heaven, is the priceless gift which the Father bestows on His children. With the consecrated seeking and finding of this kingdom one discerns and demonstrates the truth of supply as naturally as he solves a simple problem in mathematics.

The understanding that God, Spirit, is substance, the source of all good, clarifies the prospect instantly. Our work, then, is to discern and correct the material argument, of whatever nature, that impedes the ready proof of Principle.

The sense of lack which claims to deny and defeat "the reign of harmony" must be replaced by the spiritual sense, in which we find freedom from our difficulties. To acquire spiritual sense is to become conscious of the things of Spirit; to see that the man of God's creating is supplied with good which knows no depletion, but remains forever in unchanging abundance.

God's perfect man is not subject to the faults and frailties that are procurers of every disaster and heartache to which flesh is heir. Entering into "the secret place of the most High," one finds his true and only selfhood, and this assures him of his sense of security. In the Father's presence one sees his own spiritual completeness and that of all God's children.

Let us search our hearts for renewed evidence that there is no lurking habit of evil thinking, no hate disguised in the robes of self-justification, no self-will making unyielding demands, and no self-pity entertaining thoughts of a false self that God has not made.

Are we expressing a right sense of gratitude for good already made manifest? When we recognize that our present blessings, in whatever measure, come from the Giver of all good, we are prepared to see and acknowledge the infinite possibilities of the ever-operative law of supply. Our beloved Leader thus comforts and reassures us in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 5): "Wholly apart from this mortal dream, this illusion and delusion of sense, Christian Science comes to reveal man as God's image, His idea, coexistent with Him—God giving all and man having all that God gives."

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