The following experience of a student of Christian Science is given in the hope that it may prove helpful to others who also are seeking to demonstrate the truth that divine Love meets every need. At the beginning of the summer of 1917 the student found herself far from being wealthy, as this world counts riches, and a few weeks before her proposed holiday she received a bill for an amount which seemed, under the circumstances, overwhelmingly big to her. She knew, however, that the work for which payment was demanded had been necessary, knew that the amount stated was not excessive, and fully realized it to be just and right that she should be ready to meet her obligations; yet the problem of how to do this appeared to present insuperable difficulties.
The first thought which seemed to promise a possible solution was that the holiday must be given up and remunerative work immediately sought; but with no business training at her command, this appeared a hopelessly uncertain project. Then with renewed meaning came the Master's words, "I can of mine own self do nothing," and she felt a sense of the utter helplessness of self, with the necessity for complete dependence upon God, whom we have learned to call our Father-Mother God.
The disappointment was hard to face, and mutual arrangements had been made by herself and some friends; but it was quickly seen that this alone must not be allowed to influence her action. Next came the thought of the disappointment to her friends, and so she arrived at the conclusion that it surely could not be right in struggling to fulfill one obligation to break others. "Shepherd, show me how to go," she prayed in the words of our Leader (Poems, p. 14), with the fervency of longing. Then she thought of the child Jesus standing in the temple, replying to his mother's gentle reproof, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" and she wondered whether, after all, "the Father's business" might not, for her, lie right ahead among those friends whom she so longed to see. Other words by our beloved Leader came, too, to help her: "Never ask for to-morrow: it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you wait, never doubting, you will have all you need every moment" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 307), and very soon the resolution was formed to go on as originally planned, trusting God.
