When Martin Luther, in 1517, nailed his theses to the church door at Wittenberg, he struck a blow for all time at the belief that in order to be healed of sin a man must have a priestly, human mediator between himself and God. All the Protestant world now knows that one may turn to God for salvation, and that God is able and willing to take away his sin. Very rapidly, too, the world is accepting the position taken by Mrs. Eddy when in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," published in 1875, she insisted that in order to be healed of sickness one needs no mediator between himself and God. Christian Scientists know that one can turn directly to God for relief from both sickness and sin.
But although we are convinced on those two points, are we not sometimes slow of heart to believe that our supply comes to us directly and surely from God; that it is spiritual and depends not at all for its manifestation on a material medium? We look to Him for holiness and health, but when it comes to food and shelter are we not apt to look—sometimes with fear and foreboding—to the interest from a bank account or to the salary from a particular business position as furnishing the means to supply our human needs, mistaking the material medium of supply for the supply itself?
On the human plane of existence it is necessary that our human needs should be supplied. "The earth, at God's command," Mrs. Eddy tells us on page 530 of Science and Health, "brings forth food for man's use. Knowing this, Jesus once said, 'Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink,'— presuming not on the prerogative of his creator, but recognizing God, the Father and Mother of all, as able to feed and clothe man as He doth the lilies." And on page 494 she says, "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need." God's ability to provide protection and nourishment for man is as sure as His ability to deliver us from sin and heal us of sickness. Our supply is no more dependent on a personal medium than our healing is dependent on a human mediator: both come direct to us from God and are unlimited.
