THE question of demand and supply seems at the present moment to occupy a ruling place in the consciousness of mortals; and the call for relief from the unrest and dis-ease pertaining to this problem seems second only to the call for relief from the burden of physical ills. Here as elsewhere it usually requires the healing of the discontent in mind to reveal the necessity for the healing of the content in matter. One may legitimately ask himself if a person perplexed and harassed with the uncertainty of supply, and beset on every side with the certainty of demand, is any better example of God's man than the one crippled with rheumatism or drooping with dyspepsia.
We read that Jesus, seeing the multitudes, went up into a mountain, and out of that mount of uplifted and holy thought came those statements of eternal truth known as the sermon on the mount. A careful study of this matchless sermon in the light of Christian Science, reveals the wonderful fact that these statements of the Master include and provide for every problem possible to mankind. One sometimes hears the plaint from people whose lives have been touched and bettered by Christian Science, and who have attained in some measure an understanding of its Principle and rule, that they are not able to apply Christian Science to money matters. If any one of these will read Matthew vi. 19-34. he will find this subject of supply and demand very definitely referred to. The first statement of the Master is, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt." As this and the following statements are studied, it will be found that every phase of this perplexing subject is touched upon. This master sermon lays down, moreover, a rule for the application of our Lord's spiritual teaching, and it is this: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." This rule is but rephrased by Mrs. Eddy when she counsels us, for the solution of any problem, "to know no other reality—to have no other consciousness of life—than good, God and His reflection" (Science and Health, p. 242).
The Master's rule says positively, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness;" but most of us seek first the kingdom of mortal mind or material sense, and its wrong thinking; we begin on the material side of the proposition. If demand exceeds supply, the first thing we do is to try to think of some way to increase the supply; and having determined the way, we undertake to "demonstrate" whatever may be required to enlarge our income. Then, when things do not come about in the way we have hoped for, we are tempted to become discouraged and wonder why we are not able to apply Christian Science to the solution of these difficulties. The explanation is given in the fact that we did not begin right. We have let mortal mind, with all its presumption and love of self and ease, make demands, and then looked to divine Mind to satisfy these demands, forgetting that we cannot limit God; that all we can ever do is to limit our readiness or willingness to understand God.
