The demonstration of individual church supply is in direct proportion to each member's individual demonstration of supply. The joyous gratitude and unselfish love of the members bring to each branch Church of Christ, Scientist, its true substance, expressed in affluence, growth, and healing.
Since Spirit is the source of all good, the basis of supply is constant spiritual activity. When a Scientist becomes gratefully aware of the blessings received in his own life by reason of his study of Christian Science, he recognizes that these benefits are also available to others. The alert member is unselfishly impelled to serve his church by his humble desire to help the community and all mankind. Each member offers his talent, inspiration, energy, and financial support as the natural outgrowth of heartfelt gratitude and love for God and for Christian Science and its Discoverer and Founder, Mary Baker Eddy.
When one fully accepts the government of divine Love in his own affairs, then his heart is filled with unselfed love. His actions prove this love through many forms of giving and of spiritual activity.
Reasoning scientifically and metaphysically, church members can know that whatever idea of Love is needed is already supplied. The truth is that man is continuously provided with unlimited good by inexhaustible divine Love. Therefore in reality man can never lack anything. This truth prayerfully applied and clearly understood is proved by the demonstration of Love's abundance to meet every human need.
When the growth of the Cause of Christian Science required the constructing of the extension of The Mother Church, an article in the Christian Science Sentinel of May 16, 1903, called attention to the opportunity for voluntary contributions. Clearly indicating that donations must flow from loyal support of the movement, the article stated: "Christian Scientists are not expected to contribute money against their will or as the result of importunity or entreaty on the part of someone else.... They know that their own individual welfare is closely interwoven with the general welfare of the Cause" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany by Mrs. Eddy, p. 10). Thus Christian Scientists today contribute willingly, indeed eagerly, seeking to promote the progress of their branch churches. Each member is necessarily blessed in proportion to his own outgoing love.
It has been noted that the Dead Sea is dead because it has no outlet. It is axiomatic that the hand stretched forth to give is also open to receive. This concept of outflowing activity must always start within each one of us, and often it is the spiritualized consciousness of a single member which leads the way to help solve the problems of an entire church.
The good results of one person's inspired activity, both metaphysical and physical, are illustrated by the following experience of a branch church which had neither growing congregation nor increased Sunday School attendance nor active Reading Room. There appeared to be factions within the membership, and lack of unity was manifest in church affairs. Hoping to improve the community effort, the majority voted to build a new Sunday School; but resentment came from differing opinions, and the expected growth did not follow.
At this point, one alert member of the church attended the Annual Meeting of The Mother Church. Refreshed and inspired, she returned to her local church and accepted appointments to the positions of Sunday School superintendent, Reading Room librarian, and circulation representative. Through seeing her active example, others volunteered to work energetically on church committees. Attendance at business and inspirational meetings increased. New residents in the community applied for membership. Sunday School attendance began to increase. The Reading Room was moved to a better location.
Today, more than five years later, an abundance of growth is evident. The church has a dynamic, expanding membership. Two sessions of Sunday School are held, and there is a thriving Reading Room in that city.
In the Gospel of Mark it is recorded that Christ Jesus watched the people cast money into the church treasury, and many who were rich contributed much. Then one poor woman came and put in a small amount. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: for all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living" (12:43, 44). No one should ever feel his love-inspired contribution to church welfare too small or unneeded, since it is a vital part of the positive sense of unity which is an essential expression of the infinite One.
Christian Science teaches that true supply is spiritual activity, the eternal outflowing of Love's infinitude. When prayerfully working to solve a problem of supply, the church member understands that spiritual activity is constantly being expressed by infinite Spirit. It is this spiritual activity which, when understood, replaces a false sense of lack and meets the church's needs. Therefore any false argument claiming lack of substance, harmony, happiness, purity, or anything else must be denied and overcome from the spiritual basis of God's allness, the infinitude of Love.
Christ Jesus clearly understood that supply is unlimited because of its inexhaustible source, infinite Spirit. His clear apprehension of this truth enabled him to express it in practical, human terms. When the multitude in the desert were hungry, he uplifted the limited sense of the disciples measured in terms of five loaves and two fishes. Acknowledging the good already at hand, Jesus revealed Spirit as the source of all supply. Then he commanded the people to sit down on the grass, to be expectant of what God had already prepared for them. The disciples also were called upon to do their part—to distribute the food, to share with others the abundance the Master had given them. Then to further illustrate Spirit's infinite capacity, they filled twelve baskets with food that remained when all had eaten and were satisfied.
The following verse illustrates with assuring clarity that prosperity must always follow when gratitude has prepared the way (Mal. 3: 10): "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."
When church members join together in the strength of unity and unselfish love for mankind, the wisdom and opportunity are always supplied to bring forth healing and growth. Such was the experience of another branch church which had an attractive edifice but the membership seemed to express a false sense of ease in matter and self-righteousness, with little outgoing effort toward the community. The Reading Room was located in the church building more to make it convenient for members who wanted to make purchases before the Wednesday evening testimony meetings than to make it available to the public. The holding of the one annual lecture was perfunctorily carried out. There was a general satisfaction with the status quo and little thought of promoting the Cause of Christian Science.
However, as the activity of the Christ gradually unfolded in the individual consciousness of the members, changes began to take place. The first sign of this appeared when a new appreciation of our Leader's demonstration of the Church Manual was gained. The realization came that a Christian Science lecture is a priceless privilege provided for in the Manual and a joyous opportunity to bring enlightenment to all who are receptive to the healing truth.
Today this church happily and gratefully sponsors three lectures a year, one of which is usually given in an outlying area where there is no other branch church. In one such area, as a result of the loving spiritual support which has accompanied this lecture work, a new Christian Science Society has been established.
An outflowing love for the community resulted in the Reading Room's being moved to an excellent ground-floor location in a thriving business district. The necessary funds to accomplish this were obtained as the unified membership realized that God is the limitless origin of all right activity. Today the Reading Room is of greater service than ever before, with many strangers using it, and excellent healing work being reported.
Mrs. Eddy says in Miscellany (p. 203): "Goodness and philanthropy begin with work and never stop working. All that is worth reckoning is what we do, and the best of everything is not too good, but is economy and riches." This local church proved that economy and riches flow from loving work. Active Christian Scientists make an active Christian Science church; and an active church blesses its neighborhood and the world.
God created all and, according to the spiritual record of creation, "behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:31). This truth leaves no room for evil or lack of any kind, because the opposite of good can never exist in the infinite ever-presence, the omnipresence, of God, good. The allness of God manifests the abundance of good.
To limit supply to material means and measure is to materialize worship. Such limitation would forsake the scientific basis that omnipresent divine Love meets every need. All supply—whether for a person, a family, or a church—is the inexhaustible flow of spiritual ideas from their spiritual cause. The God-oriented mission of a branch church assures the expression of abundance in meeting its financial obligations, in increasing its adherents, and in doing effective healing work for its community.
It is impossible to separate the growth of an individual church's membership from the spiritual growth of the church's individual members. Similarly, it is impossible to separate the demonstration of supply by an individual church from the demonstration of supply by the individuals in the church. Christian Scientists join together in unity and love, only to find they are already one in Love and that which seems needed is already provided, "pressed down ... and running over" (Luke 6:38). This spiritualized consciousness brings the glorious beauty and riches of Soul, Spirit, into present expression. Church is seen as the complete and perfect idea of Truth and Love, enduring throughout all ages and sustained by an infinite supply of spiritual ideas. This is beautifully summarized in these words from Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy (p. 206): "In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with the loaves and the fishes,—Spirit, not matter, being the source of supply."
