IN an apparently material, limited, and changeable world, amenable to conflictive, disruptive forces, there is a widely accepted theory that all things are subject to depreciation—a lessening of values—resulting from the effects of time, wear, fashion, or usage. To this unstable premise the entire human economy appears to conform. Thus an ever-increasing volume of production barely keeps pace with the demands for replacement. A law of accretion and depletion seems to be in effect in lieu of God's law of supply and demand maintained in perfect balance and operating as spiritual unfoldment.
There would be considerably less cause for concern if this supposed law of depreciation were restricted to the various material accessories used in one's everyday experiences. Opposed to divine law, however, false law claims to operate as a mandate of mortal mind for jurisdiction over the human body with the obvious intent of first enslaving and then destroying it. One dictionary gives this definition of "depreciation," which reads in part: "A decrease in value; specif.: . . . A lowering in estimation; disparagement." Here is a clue to the malicious design underlying this depredation on mankind, appearing in the guise of a law of declining values.
Clearly recognizing the sense of fluctuating values assigned to material possessions, and in an effort to awaken mankind to the necessity of turning from a futile consideration of material evidence toward a grander outlook on the realm of the spiritually real, Christ Jesus enjoined his hearers (Matt. 6:19,20), "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." We know, of course, that the Master did not mean to imply that anyone should disregard whatever seems necessary to fill an obvious human need. His teachings involved the practical application of spiritual laws made manifest in the fulfillment of whatever appeared to be the need of humanity.
