IN Genesis we read: "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. . . . Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them" (1:31; 2:1). In this "very good" creation there is no need of anything better. God holds the perfect universe in His grasp, maintaining and controlling its state of perfection.
In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy refers frequently to the control God exercises over spiritual man and the universe. On page 171 she says, "Mind's control over the universe, including man, is no longer an open question, but is demonstrable Science."
Quite a different state of affairs seems to obtain in the realm of physical belief. Mankind are always making, buying, or trying to get something which at present they have not.
Christian Science teaches us how to overcome the belief in lack. Mrs. Eddy writes (ibid., p. 494):"Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demonstrated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good." The first sentence is often quoted, but what glorious truth is stated at the end of the second sentence! The comforting equation that supply equals need is a spiritual idea of completeness, perpetually operating, irrespective of the material view that there is a need requiring a supply.
Mortal mind, believing its own misconceptions, seems to see hungry people, homeless people, jobless people, poor people, and sick people interspersed with a few people fabulously rich in worldly possessions and others of moderate circumstances. Wide differences cannot be true of the man whom God created in His own image and likeness. It is inconceivable that God's creation could include such opposites as rich and poor, sick and well, happy and miserable, when God is infinitely good and with Him "is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17).
Speaking broadly, the mention of supply turns thought to money—wages, salaries— enough to buy whatever is needed or even wanted. Christian Science approves of enough money to meet needs for happy, comfortable, and full human experience. The receipt of a rich monetary reward, however, is often mistaken for the acme of success. But there are so many legitimate needs beyond a full wallet, a car, and a home crowded with modern conveniences.
Do we not know of many cases where all these desirable material things have been striven for and obtained, only for the individuals concerned to discover that the original emptiness, the same dissatisfaction, the same feeling of unsatisfied longing for something that is still lacking remain? And what is still lacking? The realization that our actual need is spiritual understanding, to be sought in Spirit and supplied by Spirit, gives us complete satisfaction.
Though it may appear contradictory, it is true to say that our human needs are met through spiritual enlightenment. They are the things added after we have first sought the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We therefore seek to understand and to reflect in our thoughts and actions the attributes of God, which include reliability, integrity, intelligence, wisdom, love, and health. In the state of godliness realized by the exercise of such mental qualities the spiritual truth of supply equaling needs will unfold to us as a reality and will inevitably manifest itself in our daily affairs.
The writer remembers the time when his income was drastically reduced owing to retirement. He found himself without a car for the first time in forty years, and he hadn't the means to buy one. At the time he was working as Christian Science Prison Minister in a prison seventeen miles away, also as deputy Minister at another prison thirty-two miles away, across wild moorland country. He used public transport for the first, and relied on the kindness of the regular Minister, who lent him his car, for the second.
Then he was confronted with the test. He was invited to take on the additional duties of Christian Science Minister for the Armed Forces in an area covering two counties, and for this a car was an absolute necessity. He felt it was his job; so he accepted, all the while praying to realize that because this was a right activity, it was accompanied by its supply.
Before he was ready to begin traveling, a relative, totally unaware of his problem, gave him a new car! Thus the recognition of the spiritual equation was manifested in daily experience, and so abundantly that not only the work for the Armed Forces was made possible, but also the work in prisons and attendance at services and meetings of his branch church, ten miles from his home, was made much more convenient and harmonious.
God's control is all-inclusive, so that needs of every description have their full equating supply. What comfort and hope this truth gives to those suffering from a belief in physical illness! The need for health is obvious, but the ever-presence of health is not always understood or believed to be possible. In order to counteract the belief of disease, it is necessary that one gain the conviction that health is the spiritual truth of man and that it has not the least connection with or dependence on matter and its false so-called laws about what constitutes health, what gives it to us, or what deprives us of it.
An understanding of the truth of health is available to all through the study of Christian Science, and this understanding reveals the truth that meets the need for health. Moreover, however immature we may feel our understanding to be, we are never confronted with a problem which cannot be solved if we begin with the understanding we already have. Such a beginning brings spiritual growth until our understanding is sufficient to meet our need. This is clearly stated by Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians (10:13), "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
When embarking on a new activity—a new job, a new journey—we need the guidance and the benefit of the experience of others who have already trodden the path. Jesus is often referred to as the Way shower He showed us by his deeds that God, Spirit, is omnipotent. He proved that everything ungodlike is untrue and that we can banish it from mortal experience by destroying the belief in its existence.
This is a new outlook to many who have believed that the fleshly form constitutes the reality of their being and that sickness is not only an inevitable state, but the correct state, to be in under certain prescribed circumstances. Jesus denied this. He taught that the flesh is demonstrably not the ruling power of our lives.
The world is writhing in the attempt to correct material troubles by material means. Jesus told us to seek relief through spiritual knowledge, even up to the ultimate pinnacle of eternal life, when he said (John 17:3), "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."
When we read that their knowledge of and trust in God overcame the troubles and trials of Joseph, Moses, the prophets, Jesus, and the disciples, we realize the magnitude of the blessing that Mrs. Eddy has bestowed on us by explaining how we may gain the understanding which will enable us to surmount our difficulties.
Our need to understand and our ability to demonstrate true being are met by Christian Science. Our beloved Leader gives us this wonderful encouragement in Miscellany (p.186): "Rest assured that He in whom dwelleth all life, health, and holiness, will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory."
