The complexities of our modern-day world, with its multitudinous economic, governmental, and social problems, sometimes cause people to look backward with nostalgia and remark, "Those were the good old days!" However, as one examines each period of human history, he readily sees that although the scene changes, the problems remain the same in essence.
For example, taxation seems a heavy burden today, and many individuals feel that reforms of some nature are essential. Nearly two thousand years ago Christ Jesus lived in a land subservient to a foreign power. Imperial Rome imposed taxes upon the populace, and undoubtedly many people viewed this obligation in much the same light as it is seen today. Resentment toward Rome was in all likelihood prevalent. The Pharisees believed they could ensnare Jesus on the subject, and they sent their disciples and the Herodians to see if "they might entangle him in his talk" (Matt. 22:15).
In response to the question, "Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?" our God-inspired Master replied, "Render ... unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." That this answer satisfied his questioners is certain, for "when they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way."
To students of Christian Science Jesus' statement is as vital and applicable today as it was the day he uttered it. Just as our Way-shower found his protection through adherence to the ideas of divine Principle, we too find our safety and wellbeing in steadfast obedience to divine law. Surely the words of Jesus point out the necessity of our obeying the laws of the land without complaint, while at the same time keeping our thought filled with the verities of God and His divine economy.
We render "unto God the things that are God's" by knowing that God alone governs His own creation, man and the universe, and by refusing to believe that man's substance can be depleted. God, the supreme and only lawmaker, is all-inclusive, self-sustaining Life. God's purpose is to give, and what God gives can never be taken away. Man is the forever recipient of the substance of Love, and since in reality man reflects Love's giving, man lives to give and loves to give. Whatever our legitimate human needs may be, we can be assured that divine Love never fails us.
A dictionary definition of the word "economy" in its theological sense is, "the Creator's plan." There can be no extremes of depression or inflation in "the Creator's plan," for there is nothing lacking or superfluous in Life. Love's bountiful currency of right ideas remains forever at the standpoint of stability and changeless perfection. Wisdom, peace, love, and spiritual satisfaction can never lose their value as the priceless substance of Life.
Through the teachings of Christian Science, we understand also that in the productive economy of Spirit there is no unemployment problem. God's man is forever fully and fruitfully employed in the service of his Maker, divine Mind. In the perfect sphere of Spirit, beliefs of inability, displacement, and uselessness are unknown. Every one of Spirit's ideas is eternally in its right place in Love's design. Principle needs each of its ideas to show forth the infinite unlimited abilities of Life.
The divine economy of Mind, in all its grandeur, order, harmony, and equipollence, is demonstrable here, now, and forever. We have divine authority to obliterate mortal mind's din of discord and confusion. The clamor of evil shouting "holocaust" from every quarter must be recognized for the nothingness that it is. As we recognize this we can prove that nothing can undermine, erroneously influence, or destroy our demonstration of the divine economy. True economy is not built on the sands of mortality, but on the immortal substance of Truth, Life, and Love. As we base our concept of economy on the true concept, we shall find that political expediency, fear, dishonesty, greed, crime, and corruption are lying suggestions of the carnal mind which can be refuted and rendered harmless in our economic affairs.
There is no threat of war where God's man lives. Soul's supremacy cannot be challenged. In human experience war is part of the belief that man is material and mortal. In this belief peace is absent, but in reality peace is the absolute law of Life. In the realm of the real there is no warring element of mortal mind, for the divine Mind is All-in-all. Peace is the perpetually uninterrupted status of the divine economy, and the real man is a living witness to all-harmonious being.
It is indeed encouraging to realize that there are many individuals dedicating themselves to the task of solving the economic problems that confront mankind today. However, all must finally awaken to the fact that divine Mind alone holds the answers to the world's myriad difficulties. Mrs. Eddy states this clearly in the Christian Science textbook. On page 379 she writes, "The real jurisdiction of the world is in Mind, controlling every effect and recognizing all causation as vested in divine Mind."
One who understands the truth of these words ceases to grope blindly among material phenomena for corrective measures. Instead, the divine economy—perfect, intact, God-directed, and God-protected— appears to thought. The false beliefs of an imperfect, destructible world disappear in the presence of Christ, Truth. Through the corrective measure of applying spiritual truth to human consciousness, thought is spiritually enlightened. To the extent that this occurs, human thought can contribute to the establishment on earth of the perfect economy, wherein peace and prosperity permanently abide. In the words of our Leader (ibid., p. 191): "As a material, theoretical life-basis is found to be a misapprehension of existence, the spiritual and divine Principle of man dawns upon human thought, and leads it to 'where the young child was,'—even to the birth of a new-old idea, to the spiritual sense of being and of what Life includes. Thus the whole earth will be transformed by Truth on its pinions of light, chasing away the darkness of error."
