THERE is always enough and to spare in the ever present now, since infinite Mind and all of its ideas exist now. Constant knowing is the natural function of divine Mind. As Mind is understood to be God, its continuous knowing is also recognized to be wholly good. Mind always expresses itself in the perfection of the compound idea man. Then, the allness of Mind is forever manifesting itself in abundant goodness, without limits of time or space, without possible change to lesser or greater degree; and it is incapable of disintegrating processes.
The idealism of Jesus was an uninterrupted demonstration of God's sufficiency to supply man with all that is necessary for wholeness, including health and happiness. His was an idealism so divinely natural that the feeding of the multitude seems to have occurred unattended by any sense of human extremity, which frequently happened before the miracles of older Scripture. True, he went apart to pray, yet ever with the consciousness of God's allness and nearness. Jesus took no erroneous suggestion into the sanctuary of his spiritualized desire to bless mankind. The habiliments of condemnation or of condonation disguised no belief that man lacks good or is supplied with evil, in the Master's compassionate love. Whether for loaves and fishes of practical demonstration, or for words of divine wisdom to enlighten men's thought, the healing power of Spirit went forth from a consciousness uplifted in grateful acknowledgment for the answer to prayer, and unfolded in merciful ministry to mortality's need.
The counterfeit of such a pure idealism claims to be a mortal sense that is mere restless self-will and its human craving. Mesmerism, or a belief in the absence of divine Mind, constitutes the illusion which is dispelled whenever and wherever Truth finds a ready channel for its own expression. Each individual consciousness may demonstrate in some degree the presence of divine Principle; and as it does so, supply for human needs manifests itself. This, however, can occur only as a false sense of self is relinquished to make room for the reflection of Spirit, thereby releasing mortal man from mesmeric belief.
Whatever gives action to right thought, must exist in and proceed from divine Mind, where all real ideas abide. The belief that there is an entity experienced as human will, capable of rejecting the Christ, may claim for a time to appear as corrosive poison or to act as a waster of seeming substance. Impurity and impoverishment sometimes have their roots in the bitterness of thwarted ambition, or in unfulfilled, covetous human hopes. Such a condition is the torment of human want,—a veritable hell for all rebellious, outlawed human impulses, which claim to resist an orderly unfoldment of Mind, as Principle. However, discomfort in evil is the assurance of its destruction, and demonstrates the inevitableness of divine law to establish infinite, eternal good, since the very nature of evil is evidence to the sufferer that there is no permanence about it; and torment ceases with its destruction.
Ideas, since they are native to divine Mind, reflect only the substance of Mind. Beliefs being nonintelligent, they cannot possibly comprehend or express substance. Mind is conscious only of its own perfection and completeness, and of its own perfect self-expression or idea. Such complete consciousness can do no less than meet our every human need, when we approach it understandingly. Seeking Mind with an open, humble desire to know its will is imperative, as a right condition for receptivity to the least manifestation of good. Why should we not be willing to learn all there is of good, when that which we learn is all for our good? Humility is neither an impossible nor a difficult concession to make, once human consciousness feels the contact of divine Love. The gentlest touch of an overflow from another's abundant store will flood with spiritual sunshine the desolation of ravaging human will. In giving to another, we prove for ourselves that the way to divine Mind is indeed a gaining process; but, better still, it is a joyous giving up of evil and a certain departure therefrom.
Christ Jesus came to show men the way of salvation from sin, sickness, and death. He was the world's greatest teacher and idealist. Christian Science is a restatement of that idealism, and comes to its students with a demand for the same high standard of conduct, and for an equally consecrated endeavor to demonstrate perfection. On page 262 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy writes, "Starting from a higher standpoint, one rises spontaneously, even as light emits light without effort; for 'where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.'" Divine Mind must be the starting point, since Mind is the only standpoint for true thought, and Mind imparts only right ideas.
To subdue the testimony of the material senses is essential to divine Love, and we cannot afford to indulge any argument of error in its attempt to neutralize the protection and power inherent in a right idea. Suggestions of evil can be met instantly with the right idea they intend to attack; and they can be opposed persistently, if there is conviction of the truth that "all is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all" (Science and Health, p. 468). Now, conviction is not necessarily dependent upon what mortal mind calls proof. A very positive sense of what is true, and therefore right, comes to one accustomed to yielding obedience to divine Principle on faith. Such a one intuitively follows the vision, or steadfastly holds to an honest position of thought. He realizes the good within the purity of his own heart. To unself human consciousness, one must accept the Christ or spiritual idea, which declares divine Mind to be all, and thereby begin to bring into demonstration an infinitely good and permanent manifestation of Mind, unhampered by the belief of existence in matter or in any way dependent upon it.
All the arguments of evil are temptations of physical sense; all the suggestions of error are products of the so-called carnal mind, whether expressed or unexpressed by what is called the physical body. Most malicious in purpose, and sometimes malignant in effect, is the mindless impression of jealous fear which would bind mortals in the grave-clothes of matter. Christian Science teaches that Love can be understood and demonstrated only as human affections are purified and, through the senses of Spirit, amplified to meet a brother's need. We cannot of ourselves supply what God alone possesses, and alone knows how to bestow; but we can wrap the mantle of kindly thought about a brother's waywardness and consequent lack, while we lovingly support the mental steps that bring him home.
Mrs. Eddy tells us that "jealousy is the grave of affection" (Science and Health, p. 68). If jealousy be allowed to propagate in the soil of material sense, what inspiring quality remains to resurrect buried hope or free the struggling heart? Deep in the valley of selfish fear or. perhaps, on the plane of willful contention, each individual human consciousness harbors the Cain of mortal desire that is seeking to slay the selflessness of a willing surrender to God. That finite sense of Life which tempts mortal man, and in belief claims to cause jealous fear, is but false belief. Christian Science gives pause to thought, and turns it to the contemplation of those spiritual qualities of the real man which reflect the infinite Father-Mother God. All harmonious good becomes real to us with a full and spiritual sense of the one parent Mind. In this realization lies the destruction of the illusion of finiteness, which charges man with two natures fundamentally opposed and antagonistic to each other.
The good reflected by each individual idea disposes of any seeming cause for jealous fear. Inseparable and infinite are all the divine attributes of Deity. Man forever reflects the individuality and indivisibility of the Christ, demonstrating the completeness of all that exists. Dwelling in the infinitude of God's care, man is ever conscious of divine Love, and therefore unconscious of any foreign influence or stimulus operating through inordinate desires, accompanied by exhaustive fears, and claiming to reverse our good by willful reaction. Bounteous Love dissolves all sense of evil, and gives resolve to the transitional states of human thought which reach upward to the perfect poise which accompanies spiritual understanding.
That sense of abundance which Christian Science brings to its every student, cannot be perverted into temptation for license. The amplitude of the one only universal Mind is measured by God-governed years of order, constant action, and freedom from improvident impulse or prodigal ways.
Every human experience based upon divine Principle contains a perfect remainder. "Twelve baskets full" are the fragments of Love which, when discerned, enable us to transcend the fears for a morrow. Mortal mind's vain strife to get ahead is the pressure felt in a material sense of abundance, for any belief in material sense is characterized by limitations. Obedience to divine Principle is all that can save; and by gathering up the inspiration of to-day, counting our blessings in grateful appreciation of Love's sufficiency, we not only prevent loss of our joy and present contentment, but are so fully occupied that we fear no lack of provision for other days.
Economy is wisdom. It is justice to one's self and mercy to others; for excesses of any kind, even in giving, are merely misdirected human impulses often cruel in effect. To injure no one and bless all, we have but to deny any sense of self apart from God's sufficiency. The intellectual glutton and the ascetic sentimentalist must alike take up the cross of self-denial, and follow the Christ in thought and deed before either can taste of the inspiration of works or feed others with the hidden manna of loving spiritual comfort. "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna," for we must receive before we can distribute.
Thought must become familiar with the scientific or lawful demonstration of supply as Jesus always demonstrated it. Through repeated, earnest effort to prove the same, human thought may grow into an awareness of infinity's ever-presence, thereby wholly losing its sense of self-conscious matter. Immediateness is the spiritual fact which indicates man's nearness and dearness to God. So close is the divine relationship, that no evil belief or mistaken sense is small enough or large enough to separate the only begotten Son or spiritual idea from the Father. The divine Mind, which comprehends infinity of manifestation, recognizes the immediateness of divine Love, as the inviolable and only relation existing between all true ideas. Clearly, then, nothing can interpose itself between that which loves and that which is loved, since the allness of God includes the oneness of man, appearing now and always to the expectant consciousness of the one prepared to receive it.
