Does money constitute supply? Many people believe so, and spend their lives accumulating money in the belief that the "almighty dollar"—or pound, franc, mark, peso—is life itself.

Actually, money is a symbol representing human supply, and as such, it has a right place in the human economy. But Christian Science shows plainly that underlying the symbol—even underlying the human supply it represents—is a basic spiritual idea.

The absolute spiritual fact is that supply is spiritual, the manifestation of Mind, God. Man, made in God's image to express Him, is always completely furnished with His qualities and ideas.

As we grasp this truth and live accordingly, supply appears in our human experience in the form most meaningful to us at the time. Suppose, for example, our need is for money. Through understanding and expressing more of the nature of God we find the spiritual idea of supply being made manifest to us as money. But the reality of the supply is still a spiritual idea, not a bank note or a coin.

In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy asks a thought-arousing question: "How were the loaves and fishes multiplied on the shores of Galilee,—and that, too, without meal or monad from which loaf or fish could come?"^{Science and Health, p. 90;} Later in the same book she gives this answer: "In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with the loaves and the fishes,—Spirit, not matter, being the source of supply. ^{p. 206;}

Obviously Jesus manifested on these occasions the power to produce, or bring forth, what was required to meet the human need. Such an act may seem far beyond our present achievement, but it was not miraculous. Jesus spoke of his Father, his ever-present source of supply, as "my Father, and your Father,"^{John 20:17;} and Mrs. Eddy refers to man as "that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker."^{Science and Health, p. 475;}

We are not trying to acquire money or things but to reflect true substance, the substance of Spirit, God, by manifesting it through spiritual understanding. So let us keep always in the forefront of thought the fact that substance is infinite, divine, eternal, including every quality and characteristic we need. With this realization, held to and made practical in daily living, we will continue by reflection to express and experience and enjoy an abundance of heavenly riches, which appear humanly in every legitimate way.

I can gratefully record proof of this spiritual truth in my own experience. Committed to a state mental hospital for a number of years, I lost all sense of the importance of money. I was classified as permanently and totally disabled, and there seemed no possibility of my return to normal living. Then, after material treatment had been found fruitless and had been discontinued, I was completely healed through Christian Science. My faculties and my sense of identity and individuality were restored. An examination before a board of psychiatrists resulted in my release from the institution.

Some time before my release, when I felt I would be returning to normal living, I became aware that my means had almost vanished. I realized that I would have to start all over again. I therefore set about studying diligently and thoroughly Mrs. Eddy's teaching on activity, substance, and supply.

Through this endeavor I ultimately overcame the limitation that confronted me. I was provided with a home, necessary to meet the requirements for release from the hospital, with a place to resume my former activity, and with consequent adequate income. As my understanding of the spiritual facts has broadened, my income has been not only sustained but increased.

Lest the foregoing be misunderstood by any who may think it correct to will material objects to appear (which in effect constitutes self-hypnosis), it should be emphatically stated that in Christian Science the human mind is not the healing agency. Rather, we are always working with fundamental divine Principle, with the one, perfect Mind, which is God—and which manifests itself. We are never dealing with effects as such, either as objects or as concepts. We are bringing our thought and life into harmony with primal cause, or God, Spirit.

Thinking and acting from the basis that spiritual cause is substance, we are liberated, step by step, from the limitations of matter. This freedom is expressed humanly in abundance. It is an infallible law of Mind that he who sees his at-one-ment with this Mind as its ever-active manifestation cannot fail to experience the human evidence of this spiritual fact. It will appear as money, or as any other needful human symbol.

Through this thinking and acting we can with confidence give financial support, generously and liberally, to any worthy enterprise or endeavor—to the Christian Science Center, for example. We know that the contributions essentially come from the infinite divine source of all that actually is. Giving from this standpoint frees us from fear. We find that our means are not depleted by giving but multiplied.

I have found this to be true, and have been grateful for the lesson learned from this freedom in giving, as well as for the continued multiplication of good in my experience. A phrase in one of the hymns in the Christian Science Hymnal has repeatedly served as an inspiration: "We thank Thee . . . for confident giving and giving's reward."^{Hymn No. 150;}

"I and my Father are one,"^{John 10:30;} said Christ Jesus. The teaching of the unity of man with God is basic to Christian Science. It opens up a vision of the limitless nature of God's bestowals.

In Jesus' parable of the prodigal, the elder son viewed things from a limited material standpoint. Displeased at the display of good showered on his younger brother, he was reminded by their father, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine."^{Luke 15:31.}

From this scientific standpoint, viewing man as the inseparable reflection of God, or good, each one can confidently ask himself, "How can I lack any good thing, when I am one with the source of all good?"