ONE or more times each year the businessman checks the stock and supplies at his place of business, rearranging the various items with a view to greater orderliness and more definite knowledge of what he has on hand. He places his choice merchandise where it will be seen at an advantage, reduces prices on certain goods for quick disposal, and discards valueless articles that fill needed space. In a similar way does the housewife clear her home of useless accumulations of household goods that clutter and sometimes even threaten the safety of her loved ones. She cleans and polishes cherished possessions that they may give greater service and enjoyment, and takes note of other items she needs to procure to add to the harmony of her home. The businessman and the housewife are both, in their respective ways, taking inventory of material possessions.
Of even greater importance to every man, woman, and child is the taking of inventory of his mental possessions, for it is in these mental households that each one lives constantly. One may spend only a specified number of hours daily in business or the home, and be absent on special days, such as Sundays and holidays. But our mental home, our consciousness, is ever with us.
Let us examine the contents of this home. Turning the searchlight of spiritual understanding on it, we may find many cobwebs of dreamy apathy, stumbling blocks of self-will, dark corners of fear, cluttered rubbish of confusion and indecision, and grimy windowpanes of self-interest and indolence. We also may find there treasures that we had all but forgotten we possessed, which need only to be brought forth and put into use to bring us and others needed help and untold joy. Such treasures as unselfishness, kindly interest in our neighbor's welfare, helpfulness in church and community activities, courage and resourcefulness in meeting difficulties, gratitude for good received, and many others, need to be kept bright and polished through use.
A student of Christian Science was silently taking inventory of her many blessings one Wednesday, preparatory to attending the evening testimony meeting. She could recall many occasions for joy and gratitude, many instances of physical, mental, moral, and financial healing; but she was startled and somewhat troubled to note that countless incidents of healing in the past had apparently been forgotten or become hazy in her thought. She was disturbed that apparently she had permitted so many occasions for rejoicing to become dim in her memory. The suggestion came to her that she should have kept a record of her many helpful experiences, writing down each one as it occurred. Such a record would prove very revealing, she thought, and it would serve as a humble and reverent reminder in moments of dissatisfaction or depression. At this point the words of a loved hymn came to mind:
"For all of good the past hath had
Remains to make our own time glad.
"God's love and blessing, then and there,
Are now and here and everywhere."
She saw clearly that good cannot be measured or dated; that it is not restricted to time, place, or person, else it would lose its divine essence. God is good, and God being ever present, filling all space, good is ever at hand and everywhere available to all. It is not something that has been or will be, but is now and always, without beginning or end. The student's illumined thought recognized so clearly the changeless, unlimited constancy and eternality of all good that the time, place, and nature of incidents of healing became unimportant in the face of her fresh realization of this ever-flowing, all-encompassing abundance of good. Gratefully she rejoiced in God, the source of all good, not only in her own experience, but for all mankind.
When confronted with the problem of feeding the multitude, Jesus asked his disciples to minister to them. He had been earnestly teaching them for many months to distinguish between spiritual substance and negative matter, preparing them for just such emergencies; and he had proved his teaching by demonstration. He was constantly admonishing them to do likewise. He had taught them to seek first the kingdom of God, and the necessary material things would follow. Jesus, when he found that they were not ready to meet the problem, looked away from matter to Spirit, God, knowing His ever-present abundance. So, in a sense, he took inventory, not of loaves and fishes, but of God given qualities of abundance, assurance, confidence in inexhaustible good, and put them into instant use.
In like manner had Elijah, centuries before, multiplied the widow's meal, and Elisha the supply of oil. Both had refused to accept the sense testimony of lack. Each looked to God's boundless store of spiritual resources and found through realization of his oneness therewith deliverance from material lack.
The Shunammite woman refused to believe the evidence of her beloved son's death. She resolutely banished thoughts of fear, hopelessness, discouragement, and turning wholly to God, she was able to seek the right course, leading to the complete restoration of her son. Her calm courage and firm spiritual conviction have been helpful to countless seekers for comfort and assurance.
When Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb, he ordered the bystanders to loose him and let him go. He meant them to release Lazarus in their own thoughts from all binding beliefs of mortality, sickness, incapacity, death, and instead to see him as God's perfect man, manifesting life, health, and harmony.
The Holy Scriptures are full of accounts of prophets and apostles who utilized their understanding of God and thereby found deliverance for themselves and others from all kinds of discord and inharmony. The divine power to heal is available to all at all times, whether the problem be great or small.
The identity of all of God's ideas is constantly being maintained and preserved under His ever-operative law of good. The author had the opportunity to prove this some years ago, when she found herself greatly distressed over the sudden passing on of a pet terrier. After struggling for a couple of days with a sense of loss, she prayerfully opened her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, and her eyes fell upon the following citation (p. 269): "Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul." She asked herself what she had been loving and cherishing. Was it the fleshly object, or was it the devotion, gentleness, loyalty, patience, and intelligence which her pet had manifested? She knew the answer, and her healing was instantaneous, for she realized that these qualities had never died, and that all good is eternal and can never be lost.
Today, when some misguided nations have put their trust in such falsities as aggression, oppression, hatred, tyranny, each of us is faced with the necessity of guarding his thinking against resentment, fear for loved ones, and pessimism as to the outcome of the conflict. We need to take stock of the truths we have learned, and firmly put them into use. When we ask ourselves, as Elisha asked the widow, "What hast thou in the house?" let us reply: "As God's child I have everything good that He has given me. I have courage, love, peace, health, substance, protection, intelligence, success, dominion, and the ability to use these blessed Godlike qualities in helping promote the welfare of all mankind."
Let the individual in the service of his country, doing his part in stamping out the forces of evil and bringing about the betterment of world conditions, realize the ever-availability of the God-qualities he possesses. Knowing that he dwells in "the secret place of the most High," he can be calm and untouched in extreme danger; reflecting divine Mind, he can know how to act and what to do under unforeseen conditions; feeling God's presence, despite the noise and distress of battle, he can rest safely, assured and confident in the ultimate triumph of right. Many have humbly and reverently testified to being marvelously protected and cared for when leaning on the all-sustaining infinite.
When one tries to blot out a sunbeam by holding a piece of cardboard between it and the sun, he finds that he has in no manner affected the sunbeam. It is still a direct bit of light inseparable from the sun. So the aviator, the soldier, the sailor, the marine, are, in their real being, inseparable from the Father-Mother God, no matter what error claims. Wherever man is, God is; and wherever God is, error is not. One needs only to realize and acknowledge God's presence to find protection from obstructing and terrifying experiences. Those on the home front may likewise find comfort and assurance for themselves and for their loved ones.
Let us pray that our eyes may be opened, that we may see the unconquerable forces of good working with us, and know that the battle is not ours, but God's. "One on God's side is a majority;" and God is everlastingly the victor.
