ECONOMIC questions of demand and supply are fundamental to human existence. The problem of "getting a living," in one form or another, confronts every member of the human family. From the materialist who frankly admits that he grubs for dollars, to the idealist who exhibits a fine indifference to petty problems of finance, all mortals, according to the law of belief, are under the necessity of earning their bread in the sweat of their brow. In fact, this was one of the first condemnatory laws formulated in the Adam-allegory. Ever since then it has been true of all who are "in Adam," that they have labored painfully to sustain a material sense of existence.
The struggle of mortals to gain a livelihood presents a composite picture of all the traits of the human mind. Selfishness, greed, injustice, envy, hate, revenge, anxiety, fear—all these play their ignoble part in the daily round of commerce. This struggle has gone on for many hundreds of years, apparently without any change, except that the gradations of belief as to riches and poverty have become more pronounced and more sharply defined. Mortals have sickened and died in their frantic effort to keep alive and to amass a fortune. Every crime on the calendar has been committed because of the lust for possession, until it is no wonder that the apostle said, "The love of money is the root of all evil." Not many, in fact, have shared the lofty views of the poet Shelley, who said: "I desire money, because I think I know the use of it. It commands labor, it gives leisure; and to give leisure to those who will employ it in the forwarding of truth, is the noblest present an individual can make to the whole."
Although, as Mrs. Eddy says, "the Bible contains the recipe for all healing" (Science and Health, p. 406), it had nevertheless not occurred to mortals to seek therein a satisfactory solution of the problem of maintaining an existence, until Mrs. Eddy boldly declared that the Science of Christianity is alone adequate to supply a satisfying answer to every vexing economic question. Christian Science proclaims itself to be the revelation of truth, and as such it must be able to correct every phase of error. It follows, therefore, that "as in Adam all die," —and before they die struggle with varying success to lay up treasure "where moth and rust doth corrupt,"—"so also in Christ shall all be made alive:" and at the same time all shall learn that man's being is sustained by Principle, and that amply, bountifully, harmoniously, without friction, without restriction or limitation, without weary effort, without discouragement and disappointment, without possibility of failure or loss.
