Of all the problems facing the world today, that of lack seems to be one of the most urgent. Individuals in all countries, faced with problems of supply in varying degree, may be tempted to feel that they are pitted against forces over which they have no control and which they are powerless either to avoid or to overcome.

The student of Christian Science, however, knows that to accept the discouraging evidence of the material senses as real would be to break the First Commandment (Ex. 20:3), "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Recognizing God as infinite Spirit, All, he understands that there can be no limitation or vacuum in His allness. Mary Baker Eddy points out in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 367), "Because Truth is infinite, error should be known as nothing." She also says (p.368), "The greatest wrong is but a supposititious opposite of the highest right." It is apparent then that the seeming lack of good, God, is no part of God's creation but is merely "a supposititious opposite of the highest right."

The Bible gives instances where the understanding of God as the only cause resulted in supply being instantly available. The feeding of the multitudes by Jesus on two recorded occasions clearly brought out that true supply is spiritual and is in no way related to the evidence before the physical senses. Because it lacks spiritual enlightenment, the world at large believes that supply can come only through physical exertion. Thus it perpetuates the curse pronounced on Adam (Gen. 3:19), "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." But this curse does not appear in the spiritual account of creation given in the first chapter of Genesis, wherein man as the image and likeness of God, Spirit, received dominion over all the earth. Therefore, it applies only to the false, limited misconception called a mortal.

Pointing out the simplicity and naturalness of supply, Jesus said (Matt. 6:28), "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin." Sunlight, soil, and moisture supply their needs, and they grow. Their normal environment provides everything necessary to bring them to blossom in all their beauty and purity. "They toil not," neither do they search, compete, or worry. Each accepts freely of the supply at hand that meets its need.

As God's child, man too is already provided with everything necessary to his complete harmony. It only remains for us to understand and accept this fact and reject the mortal concept of life as sustained in and by matter, in order to utilize and profit by the inexhaustible supply of Spirit. Mrs. Eddy tells how this is to be done when she writes on page 123 of Science and Health, "Divine Science, rising above physical theories, excludes matter, resolves things into thoughts, and replaces the objects of material sense with spiritual ideas."

On one occasion during the late war the writer was faced with the necessity of finding new business offices, since those he already occupied were in a building to be taken over by a government department. Several weeks of human endeavor proved fruitless, for every available room was immediately requisitioned by one of the rapidly expanding war departments.

Walking back to his office after another fruitless search, he realized that although the situation seemed hopeless, it but offered another opportunity to put into practice the truth learned in his study of Christian Science. All negative thoughts and suggestions of lack he immediately rejected and replaced with the positive truths of man's eternal oneness with God, in whom man lives, and moves, and has his being. He reasoned that since God is All, He is the source of infinite supply, and since man has his being in God, he forever evidences God's abundance; therefore he does not have to search for supply. The writer knew that although perhaps not yet evidenced in human experience, these truths are now true, and in the light of spiritual understanding they must be externalized in human supply.

Upon reaching his office building, he noticed an old acquaintance examining the name plates outside the entrance. It developed that this friend was desiring information as to the whereabouts of a certain firm whose name plate had been removed from the front of the building. Another tenant had told him that the firm had removed. The writer took his friend into his own office and telephoned the firm in question, only to find that they had not made any move and did not intend to do so. The friend then left to keep his appointment with them.

The following day one of the firm's directors called the writer to thank him for assisting their client. Having learned of his need for an office, the director gave him an introduction to a friend who owned a building only fifty yards away. This gentleman readily agreed to make certain structural alterations, and soon the writer was established in new offices more convenient in every way than those he had previously occupied. That which met his need was found to be at hand and available.

Does one fear that his need cannot be met? Let him turn away from the frightened sense of the human steps needing to be taken and cast his net on the side of spiritual abundance, remembering the words of St. Paul (Rom. 11:33), "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!"

As the lilies find their sustenance at hand in liberal sufficiency in their natural surroundings, so man is nourished and sustained without interim or depletion by his heavenly Father-Mother, God. Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health, p. 494), "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need."