A couple of years ago, after receiving a letter in which I had voiced some discouragement, a friend answered with a simple but wonderful statement. "We must," he wrote, "admit what is possible." This friend is a Christian Scientist. So what he meant was that we must know what is possible to man as the unlimited, precise likeness of Spirit, God, and make this spiritual ideal the basis of scientific prayer and expectancy.
I was once more reminded of this helpful statement when listening to and reading the news of the drought and famine in Africa. The human tragedy would seem almost incomprehensible, and the problems too great to solve in time to save the hundreds of thousands who need help this very hour. Arid deserts, years without rain, warring governments, conflicting ideologies, greed, hatred, inadequate transportation, fear, ignorance, outmoded traditions and superstitions, all present a picture suggesting that the problems are too many to prevent great loss of life before any permanent solutions can be found.
There is no question that a number of these problems involve moral issues that can be resolved only through deep regeneration. But must an entire people wait for complete moral regeneration before they can be fed? We know that the children of Israel had a lot of moral growing to do after the Exodus, and it took the nation forty years—a whole generation—to learn the lessons needed before it could enter the Promised Land. But the people were fed during those forty years, because God, the divine Principle who makes strict demands, is also the divine Love whose mercy sustains and comforts while lessons are being learned. The individual nature of salvation demands, of course, that all individuals eventually accept Truth for themselves according to their readiness. But admitting what is possible includes understanding the impartial nature of divine Love and the transcendently unstoppable action of its law. This fact indicates the possibility that even one spiritually-minded individual can bring some solutions to light to aid multitudes —just as one man, by inventing the light bulb, lit up a world as yet ignorant of the science involved.
