In the Church Manual Mary Baker Eddy admonishes the church members to conduct their affairs with wisdom, economy, and brotherly love (Art. XXIV, Sect. 5). What is this economy to which she refers? Certainly, a true economy must be spiritual, therefore practical in the highest sense. It must proceed from God, divine Principle; otherwise it would not be related to divine Science. Proceeding from God, it cannot carry with it any taint of materiality, that is, any material thinking or process. It must be unerring, universal, and always available.

Christ Jesus, our Way-shower, said (John 4:35): "Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest." In this statement Jesus sought to rouse his disciples from the apathy in their human concept of action. Human action is limited and postpones all realization; it believes in processes, times, and personal achievements through a personal mind, whereas the Master endeavored to show that the harvest, or realization of good, is attained only as the spiritual nature of existence is understood. He knew that there is but one cause of existence, God, and that this cause and its manifestation, man and the universe, are entirely good now.

Humanly conceived, economy refers to a thrifty management of household, state, or church affairs, or to the production and distribution of material wealth. It also refers to the saving of time, money, or other resources. Thus a certain action or a certain individual is described as economical or uneconomical. Human economy has become a world-wide problem that grows more involved each year. In its name new ideologies present themselves as solutions, coming and going like the fashions of the seasons.

The economical nature of Spirit's government lies in its ever-presence. Spirit, one of the seven synonyms for God given by Mrs. Eddy in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," is All and one. In the degree that the allness and oneness of Mind, or Spirit, are individually realized, the tedious experience of material process and delay is done away with, for such process proceeds from the false concept that there is a material universe and a time limitation. Matter and time are phases of the belief of divisibility, of more than one Mind.

Separatism, plurality, divisibility, and duality are erroneous concepts of mortal mind, the supposititious opposite of the oneness of being, a fundamental point in the teaching of Christian Science. The substance that is Spirit, Mind, Love, does not become separated from itself. In the divine economy Spirit always remains itself. It does not become something else to meet the human need. But this need is met as the human sense yields to the divine fact of Spirit's allness.

In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy defines man thus (p. 591): "The compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spiritual image and likeness of God; the full representation of Mind." Then man, generically, "the full representation of Mind," includes all the right ideas of Mind. This inclusion of right ideas is wholly a spiritual, subjective state of existence and constitutes man's natural, ever-present, processless, indestructible wealth. It also constitutes the health of his being. This wholeness of the real man, as the reflection of the one Mind, precludes the possibility of invasion in the form either of a disease germ or of an accident. It likewise precludes a competitive experience, a contest of wills.

In the allness and oneness of being, one cannot take from another or actually give to another. What appears as sharing of good between individuals is the realization, in a degree, of the uninterrupted oneness and infinitude of being; of God-constituted, individual spiritual self-completeness; of the impartial and universal nature of divine Love. In the miracle of the loaves and fishes Spirit's sufficiency was demonstrated. When Jesus multiplied the five loaves and fishes and fed the multitude, there were twelve baskets full of fragments remaining, a proof that Truth is never inadequate, but ever sufficient to meet at all times all human needs.

What appears as immediate abundance, instantaneous healing, or a sudden turn of fortunes for the better, when accomplished through our understanding of the presence of Spirit, Mind, and its government of and provision for man, is the human evidence of the good that is ever present.

Progress from the human standpoint implies obstacles overcome and a recognition of personal accomplishment. However, Christian Science teaches that true progress comes from the operation of God's law in human consciousness, which corrects the limited human sense of accomplishment through revealing the truth that man expresses the infinite unfolding of the omniactive Mind.

The way to improve upon the human, limited sense of managed economy, with its processes and delays and all their matter-lodged suggestions, is to live the Christ Science, to show forth in ever-increasing measure the omnipotence and oneness of Spirit in daily experience. All that mankind desires is a truly practical way out of its economic difficulties, and because Christian Science can show the way, students of this Science have a great opportunity and responsibility to mankind. They can know that it is their business to realize with increasing clarity that God is the Father-Mother of all and to exemplify the brotherhood of man by loving their neighbor as themselves.

The real man is the perfect idea of Love, priceless beyond compare. Wisdom and intelligence are God-bestowed on him. He is governed by the economy of Spirit because he reflects undivided Mind. There are no vagaries of human belief in Mind, no obstructive material persons, because in God's universe there are no mortal persons, no personal senses, and none of the troubles allied thereto. Mind is One and All. It is all-inclusive by nature. This fact eliminates a human mind to manage and a something to be managed.

The activity of true economy is inherent in reflection. When one accepts this spiritual fact, that his real selfhood is the reflection of God, and that God causes the reflection, he spontaneously benefits from the divine economy.

In proportion as one reflects Spirit will directness and clarity be manifested in his experience. His thought and actions will be buoyant, spontaneous, joyous, above the uncertain sense of material wishfulness and planning, free from dishonesty, hypocrisy, jealousy, partiality, injustice, petty opinion. He will not consider past mistakes in evaluating his present usefulness to mankind, but he will know that, in reality, as the son of God his worth far outweighs the estimates of mortal mind.

One of the false beliefs of matter, therefore of human economy, is the belief of a medium, the belief that man needs something from the outside to save him, to make him satisfied and complete. The need may appear to be for money, for medical aid, for a protector, for a spiritually-minded person to counsel and aid him, or for someone to assure him that he is loved. From the standpoint of Truth the real man is already saved; that is, he is complete and satisfied.

This spiritual, real man, being the manifestation of all-inclusive divine Mind, does not have an outside universe to fix up, to change, or to make better. The kingdom of heaven is within: it is found in the realization of man's present perfection as the manifestation of God, good, completely separate from the beliefs of time, personal sense, and place—his own spiritual understanding of his present perfection as the son of God.

In the economy of Spirit true values are established by Love, divine Principle, and they do not vary. The values of Spirit know nothing of price levels or variable laws of supply and demand, of even or uneven distribution of money or commodities, of human opinions and estimates.

In the economy of Spirit, divine Love alone evaluates. To love is the only prerequisite in the divine economy, and God's impartial and universal bestowal of good is the only distribution. This knowledge is indeed true wisdom, and a treasure so dynamic and precious that no one can hold it to himself. It belongs universally to all mankind.