THE problem of supply has confronted mankind ever since the sentence was pronounced upon Adam that he should earn his livelihood by the sweat of his brow. The setting has changed somewhat from the time of Adam to the twentieth century, but material belief still maintains that man is separated from God; that he is subject to the material laws of birth, growth, maturity, and decay, and that during these phases of experience he may continually fail to receive much that he deems needful for his comfort and welfare. Through all the ages the question of supply has exacted a large degree of human attention, and the materialist has found no dependable, permanent solution for the problem. In rare instances individuals have gained sufficient insight to solve this problem in greater or less degree, but the mist of material thinking has been wont to close in after such evidences, and mankind has had no invariable rule for its guidance.
The incomparable example of Christ Jesus was not sufficiently understood to convince mankind that inharmony could with certainty be eliminated from daily life, and the world came to believe that his demonstrations were miraculous instances of divine power vouchsafed for that time only. No understood rule appeared until, in this age, God's revelation of Truth came to one sufficiently spiritual to receive it and to become His instrument for the awakening of mankind from the dream of mortal existence. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, received this revelation and not only solved problems effectively for herself and others, but was able to teach others how to do so for themselves; and she was divinely led to set forth her discovery in her inspired writings, to establish her church organization, and to safeguard it through the Church Manual.
Mrs. Eddy discovered that man, the image and likeness of God, as revealed in the Bible, is spiritual; that the so-called mortal man is a counterfeit of God's man, a dream-creation claiming to be material, apart from God and subject to material law and limitation. She discovered that material experience is mortal thought objectified, the illusory creation of mortal mind, to which material sense is the only witness. Such evidence is never more dependable than the testimony that the earth is flat; and always, as in that instance, sense-evidence is controverted by the superior authority of law applicable to the question.
