In these days of ever-rising prices, how do we. as students of Christian Science, think of supply? Do we think of it as spiritual ideas from God, ever available, here and now, to meet our every need? Or do we, almost unconsciously, accept the suggestion that we are at a distance from the source of our supply and have to be connected to it. as a diver on the ocean bed is connected with his supply of air through a hose from the surface? Are we, like the diver, occasionally anxious lest our supply be restricted or cut off? Sure though we may be that God's ideas are limitless, are we equally sure that their abundance will always be manifested to us? If not, can it be that we are looking at supply from the wrong point of view?

Perhaps we are allowing the ordinarily accepted human sense of supply to influence our thinking on this subject. The very word supply may conjure up a mental picture of something coming to us, rather than of something being here all the time. Perhaps we feel that God's ideas are not always right here, but come to us only as we need them. Although that may seem to be the case, such a concept gives us a feeling of separation. When we ponder Mary Baker Eddy's words in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 361), "As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man. Father and son, are one in being," we see that any separation between God and man is impossible. God and man, the Giver and the receiver, are one in being as Mind and idea. Man, in his true selfhood, is inseparable, then, from abundance.

Many may feel that although this may be true in absolute truth, it is of little practical value to them in paying the rent or in buying a new coat. They may feel that what they really need is a larger income. Let us consider the word income for a moment: what it is and whence its source. Usually an income takes the form of payment for services rendered. Whether we work in a factory, on the land, in an office or shop, we exercise our skill, utilize our professional knowledge or specialized ability in the performing of useful services. And we are expressing intelligence, accuracy, alertness, honesty, courtesy, and the like—all mental qualities.

Since there is but one Mind, we are really paid for reflecting spiritual qualities and ideas. So we arrive at the inevitable conclusion that whatever may be the material source of our human income, our ability to earn it is derived from God. It follows, therefore, that the more we avail ourselves of Mind's ideas, expressing them in our daily work, the greater will be our efficiency and the larger our income.

But one may object, "My income is fixed," or, "I live on a retirement pension which cannot be increased." Let that one turn away from his seemingly limited source of income and turn to the limitless Mind, whose abundance fills all space. Let him not limit in thought the amount of his income or the source from which it is derived. Let him accept the ideas of Mind as his real income and utilize these ideas in loving service to his fellow men, without thought of reward. He will find his sense of lack replaced by a sense of abundance, and his human supply will meet his human needs.

The writer has proved the truth of this statement more than once. One particular occasion stands out in memory. Calling at his bank to ascertain the amount to his credit, he was informed that only a small sum of money remained. Having been under the impression that he had a considerable balance and knowing that he would not receive any further payments of salary for some three months, he was plunged into a sense of depression.

Being a student of Christian Science, he naturally turned to Mind for some spiritual idea to help him in his distress. Looking away from the mesmeric picture of lack, he began to gain a sense of the allness and ever-presence of God. The comforting words of the father to the elder son in the parable of the prodigal son came to him (Luke 15:31), "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." He glimpsed the fact that in God, rather than in a bank balance, lay the source of his supply, from which there could be no separation. He recalled Paul's words (Rom. 8: 38, 39), "I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

The writer saw where he had gone astray. In the past he had resembled the diver, looking to one restricted hose as his sole source of supply. Now he began to feel as he imagined a diver might feel on returning to the surface: he freely takes in deep draughts of the fresh sea air and no longer fears that his supply may be depleted. No longer would he consider the air around him from the viewpoint of "supply" at all. He would accept it as that to which he was entitled by right. While he was thinking in this way, a sense of his own oneness with and inseparability from God's infinite ideas came to the writer. His seemingly meager resources were forgotten; he was conscious of the presence of abundance. Long will he remember the months that followed. The small sum in the bank seemed almost inexhaustible, and with the addition of one or two unexpected payments which he received, it proved adequate to meet all his needs until the next salary check was due.

From time to time since then, the problem of inadquate funds has arisen. But each time, as the writer has turned away from limiting sense testimony, and has refrained from outlining as to the nature or source of his supply, he has gained a greater sense of man's oneness with God, and his human needs have invariably been met.

So, if this problem of lack of supply should arise, let us look away from the human sense of supply with its seeming material source and gratefully accept and rejoice in our God-given abundance of ideas, infinitely available wherever we are. Spiritual ideas, accepted and understood, will be expressed in our daily human activities in greater skill, better judgment, and more consideration and love for our fellows.

These ideas will bring with them their unfailing reward in the form which will best meet our human needs. Not only will those needs be met, but we shall gain something of more lasting value—a better understanding of man as revealed in Christian Science. In "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" Mrs. Eddy writes (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."