The affluence of divine Love, with its tender provision for man, is demonstrable in human experience. The teeming universe about us points to the underlying bountifulness of being.
The Bible repeatedly illustrates the outpouring of Spirit to save and bless spiritually-minded individuals. One such illustration concerns Elisha and an impoverished widow. The prophet asked her, "What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house?" (II Kings 4:2.) Elisha thereby awakened her to acknowledge that she already had a pot of oil. After she had obediently gathered vessels in preparation for the forthcoming deliverance, what joy and thanksgiving must have welled up in her heart when the pouring-out of the oil filled the vessels!
Each of us has certain recognized capacities and talents. It is equally true that each of us has capacities and talents that seem buried or dormant. The development of these talents, both visible and invisible, is the business of the earnest, working Christian Scientist. This development comes not from accretion but from the humble acknowledgment and demonstration of the unseen reality of good.
Abundance of good of all sorts inevitably appears from this spiritual awakening. Mrs. Eddy writes of this boundless opportunity for development (Science and Health, p. 258), "God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis."
Immortal manhood, in full-orbed reflection, is the climax of God's glorious expression of Himself. Christ Jesus was the highest human example of this reflection. His remarkable demonstrations of spiritual power were the natural outcome of his awareness of his spiritual identity.
The ceaseless human effort for betterment is a recognition that a higher state exists and can be achieved. If impoverishment and limitation were real and God-given, then the hope of betterment would be unrealistic and impossible. Divine revelation, as well as reason, indicates that the spiritual state of being is intact, known unto God and His family of divine ideas.
Human sense but dimly perceives the spiritual source and condition of real being. Humanity needs awakening from its distorted view, which befogs and belittles its concept of Deity. Purposelessness, impoverishment, and hopelessness are distortions of the carnal mind, which believes its own falsities. What is it that can waken thought from its lethargic belief that such distortions are real and present? It is the Christ, Truth, that rouses thought to the contemplation of spiritual possibilities.
Jesus said, "Behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21). Abundance, then, must be an integral condition of real being, and impoverishment must be illusory, no part of real being.
The awareness of present good and the appreciation of it open the door to more substance. To this sense of present good may need to be added the desire and willingness to work things out humbly through spiritual inspiration. Giving practical advice in poetic language, the Bible says, "Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well" (Prov. 5:15).
These thoughts were helpful to a young man trying to find his niche in business. His home was in an isolated rural community apart from centers of activity. His education was limited, and other formidable problems threatened his path.
Having been brought up a Christian Scientist, however, he had learned and proved that his heavenly Father both cared for him and guided him. The account of Elisha and the impoverished widow came to his thought. The prophet's question, "What hast thou in the house?" was remarkably pertinent to his own situation.
He then asked himself: "What capacities, or substance, are already stored in my mental house? What waters are already in my own spiritual well?
He acknowledged that he had an active, living faith in God's ability to express Himself and to meet every need. And, like the widow, he was obediently willing to follow divine guidance. The awareness of these substantial ideas wakened an expectancy of good, as well as confidence of fruition.
Earnestly he prayed, and presently the answer came. Already he had a love for and knowledge of livestock. Joyfully he realized that he could utilize such substantial knowledge in establishing a business. With all his savings, he bought a cow and some calves, and his successful business career began.
On page 506 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says, "Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear."
Among the holy purposes of Christ Jesus was the demonstration of abundance and sufficiency. Multitudes were fed with what already was at hand—a few loaves and fishes. Any scornful doubt that the visible loaves and fishes were pitifully inadequate was overshadowed by the outpouring of abundance which appeared. Not human intellect but spiritual understanding produced the appearance of abundance, which fed the hungering. Explaining the appearance of such abundance, Mrs. Eddy writes, "As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, which before were invisible, will become visible" (ibid., p. 264).
The same tender and generous Principle which centuries ago sustained the widow and fed the multitudes at the Sea of Galilee is functioning today, this very moment, in human experience. Christian Science is the law of God, making the divine reality practical and available in human affairs.
Emerging from the engulfment of limited material sense, mankind can discover spiritual abundance, beginning with what already is visibly at hand, what already is "in the house." What the son of God has "in the house" is what God, his Father, has in store for him. Affluence, purposefulness, joy, perfection, harmony, completeness are among the ideas in the storehouse of Spirit.
Man dwells in God's perfect estate of abundance, irrevocably controlled by equality of supply and demand. Jesus must have beheld this illimitable range of real being when he said, "In my Father's house are many mansions" (John 14:2). Immortal man, the son and heir of God, dwells in spiritual mansions, filled with abundance.
