Every individual at some time has read or heard read the Scripture from Matthew, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened," and has wondered why it is seldom if ever made practical. Often it has been dismissed in a spirit of unbelief, or, if through previous training or an innate reverence for the Bible one were fearful of admitting utter disbelief in the truth of the statement, he would at least venture that the statement did not apply to him or his time.
Jesus said, "Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? ... for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Are we seeking first the kingdom of God? Is it not a secondary consideration in our daily round of material living? Have we not been taught that what we have of supply for daily needs depends on our own material efforts? Is not the entire education of men away from God rather than seeking for God as the giver of all good, because men have had little comprehension of God as being of any assistance, or even interested in supplying the needs of mankind? Instead, a man's training is such as to fit him best to acquire this supply for material needs in a wholly material way and according to certain material laws, matter creating the demand, and a man, through matter, seeking a supply for this demand. To those reasoning, as most of mankind are doing, from a wholly material basis, life consists only of the ceaseless struggle for the acquisition of matter to meet material needs, thus measuring life wholly by material standards, and in so doing seeming to reverse God's entire plan of existence. Through ignorance failing in his part of the covenant to "seek first the kingdom," a man may try to force God's part and acquire all these things through matter and matter's laws, until he has lost sight of God, almost wholly, and it has become a mania to measure success by mammon. He exceeds the mere supplying of material needs and seeks to pile up fortunes that he may be accounted a successful man, losing sight of the real basis of success, which Mrs. Eddy later revealed in her statement on page 9 of her Message for 1900, "Sincerity is more successful than genius or talent."
In the fourth chapter of James we read, "Ye lust, and have not ... ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." This passage infers that there are some who have asked and have not received, and because of this the world in general has arrived at a doubting state of thought. But this Scripture has plainly stated the reason they have not received: "Ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." In other words, the asking has not been for the sake of advancing spiritually, but in order to add to an already overburdened sense of materiality. This basis for living finally resulted in a general bewilderment of thought, and there seemed to be no clear vision of the Christ. Mankind were hastening remorselessly on, only sooner or later to be startled with the realization that they had neglected the most essential things, and were reaping the consequences of their neglect. Not until this realization comes, usually through suffering, do they cry out, "What is wrong?" and "Where is the place of understanding?"
