The belief in loss and limitation seems today to be well-nigh universal. Many of us find ourselves mesmerized by this all-pervading atmosphere and are struggling to rise above its density to a clearer altitude, where spiritual perception, unbemurked by clouds of sense, will enable us to recognize the unreality and the falsity of this claim. "We have lost money," says one friend; "Investments are so bad," says another, and one hears this so frequently reiterated, that it needs something more than mere optimism to counteract the deleterious effect produced by this belief upon the human mind.
Whether it be ourselves who are temporarily in bondage, or others, we must set to work to right the wrong, must face the situation fearlessly, knowing that poverty is as much a state of mental procurement as sickness or sin, and that it must be handled and overcome in the same way. Though the belief is different, the method for its destruction and removal is that which applies to all other false claims, viz., a right knowledge and understanding of divine Principle, which when demonstrated will restore normal conditions.—"will supplant error with Truth,—and silence discord with harmony" (Science and Health, p. 405). If we believe we have sustained a financial loss, have been deprived of our possessions, this belief must be superseded by spiritual understanding, which rightly applied will replace that which may seem to have vanished, but in reality has never been lost, for, as the Master said, "whosoever hath [spiritual understanding], to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have." To see things as they are, and not as they seem to be, i.e., to know the truth, the reality about everything, and not judge by "appearances," is what each of us has to do in connection with every problem that confronts us in daily experience.
Our Leader tells us to "correct material belief by spiritual understanding" (Science and Health, p. 425); and again, on page 472, she says, "Error is a belief without understanding. Error is unreal because untrue. It is that which seemeth to be and is not." Therefore all discordant conditions result from ignorance of God, or else through fear or sin. If we regard our supply as being proportionate to bank deposits or dependent upon the fluctuations of the money market, the tips and downs of which serve as a barometer to measure our gains and losses and attendant joys or sorrows, we are indeed precariously situated. We are too prone to hold supply as being great or small according to the number of figures that represent our capital and (humanly viewed) source of income.
