After hearing a testimony at a Wednesday evening meeting in a Church of Christ, Scientist, a friend said to the writer, "Fancy being able to use Christian Science for such a mundane thing as income tax!" The fact is, of course, that if there were a single problem of our so-called human existence which could not be resolved by the application of Christian Science, it would not be Science. Science is and must be universal and capable of being universally applied, irrespective of time, place, subject, or object.
For thousands of years the question of taxation has troubled mankind in some degree. It is mentioned in the Old Testament (II Kings 23:35), and we also have record that Jesus was faced with a problem common to many—the demand for tax while he had not the necessary coin in his possession. Jesus, however, understood the Principle which is the source of man's infinite supply, and without doubt or delay knew where the human evidence of God's provision for the human need was to be found (see Matthew 17:27). The testimony referred to above, the facts of which are known to the writer, bears out that today, as always, the burden of human taxation can be lifted if one faithfully applies the rule of Christian Science and looks steadfastly away from the human sense of excessive demand.
One day a student of Christian Science received a demand from the income tax authorities for a large sum of money which he had no idea he owed them. He queried the demand, as one sometimes does, in the hope that a mistake had been made, but the peremptory tone of the reply he received left him in no doubt that the official concerned was satisfied that the amount was due and that he expected payment without delay. The amount was of such proportions, however, that it did not seem possible for him to pay it, and so he decided that the matter called for specific mental work in Christian Science. He tried to realize that the only legitimate demands which could be made on him were those supported by God's law of justice, and that therefore along with such demands he was provided with the means of meeting them, however pressing or peremptory they might seem.
