In his work of arousing humanity to the all-presence of God and the closeness of our relation to Him, Jesus chose the name of Father as typifying most clearly our utter dependence upon Him, His loving interest in our every-day needs, and His infinite power to supply them. Christians have accepted this term for God in theory, but in practise they have to a large extent set aside all that it implies of protection and maintenance in human conditions, and continued to scramble for one material thing after another to supply their various needs, experiencing as a result all sorts of discord and privation. Yet Jesus reveals to us, in the parable of the prodigal, the Father who declares, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." Could there be a clearer "Peace, be still," to the strife and fear of mortal existence?
Christian Science shows us that it is our failure to recognize God as our Father, and as the real source of supply, consequently our failure to see what the real supply is, which causes all sense of limitation and want; so that lack is overcome not by material acquiring, but by mental readjustment. Of course this is in direct contradiction of the testimony of the physical senses, nevertheless it can be shown on the plane of ordinary human reasoning that any supply of what we call material need is mental in its origin and not material. If, for example, the choice could be made between owning a painting of a popular and successful artist or of possessing the ability of the painter himself with all the qualities of mind and heart that made for his success, one would see that as a matter of profit the skill of the artist, wholly supersensible in its nature, would be a far greater source of gain than the possession of any of his pictures.
In the same way, if we were given the choice of owning a business, its material organization and system, or the intelligence which produced and directs it, we would realize that any business establishment without wise management would soon fail, while the man who has the kind of intelligence, industry, and wisdom which produce business success, is capable of building up a successful organization wherever he is placed. In this way any apparent material possession can be traced to a mental power behind it which is the real source of supply.
