Wealth As Scientifically Understood

There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches.—Proverbs, 13:7.

Wealth is abundance, plenty, possession, riches, treasure, substance. Marshall in his “Principles of Economics” says that a man’s wealth is to be taken to consist of two classes of goods, … those material goods to which he has, by law or custom, private rights of property and which are therefore transferable and exchangeable, and those immaterial goods which belong to him and serve directly as the means of enabling him to acquire material goods. A still better sense of wealth is given in the word richness, expressing not the possession of riches, but “being rich.” Richness is the overflowing plenty of inherent quality, excellence, fruitfulness; we thus can speak of the wealth of the soil, the wealth of affection.

The word wealth is a derivative of weal, signifying a sound, healthy, prosperous state,—happiness, prosperity, well-being. Commonweal and commonwealth signify strictly the common good, and the primary sense of weal is strength, soundness. The true nature of wealth is best expressed in the word affluence. Affluence means a profuse or abundant supply, a flowing toward, concourse. The dictionary defines affluence as “abundance of material goods, accompanied with generous expenditure.” The realization of affluence therefore demands that abundance be made liberal use of, in giving out, imparting. We could not speak of a miser as living in affluence, though we might speak of his hoarded wealth as useless riches. Affluence implies a “flowing readily”—which suggests Life; a “flowing toward,”—which tells of Love; the having or furnishing of abundance,—abounding in substance, which to be ever abounding must be infinite, eternal Truth. We find then that wealth signifies a state of having more than common abundance, and while wealth does not allow of limitation, on the contrary riches are always measurable,—having a limit, coming to an end somewhere and at some time.

Science and Health (p. 140) bids us rejoice “in the affluence of our God.” True wealth in Christian Science is the power of demonstrating the infinite ability of divine Love to meet every need, for others as well as for ourselves. The true sense of wealth binds us closely to God, since in order to have an abundant supply which will never fail us, we have to turn to the infinite. Infinite good is the ever-flowing source from which all good must come, and we can only realize wealth in the going out of good through us to others; our measure of wealth lies in our ability to give. A material sense of riches, on the other hand, would tend to separate us from God and from our fellow-men,—through cares, worldliness, pride, fear, and limitation,—producing spiritual barrenness. The psalmist says, “They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: … that he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.”

True wealth can never be gained by oppression, by trampling upon the rights of others or by taking advantage of our brother. Jeremiah says, “He that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.” Pride of possession would blind us in our relation to God and cut us off from the source of wealth. The wise man said, “There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.” The mere accumulation of riches does not constitute wealth, which bears not in itself the elements of contentment. Happiness can only dwell in the understanding of wealth as the manifestation of the abundance of divine Love, and in the consciousness of reflecting Love, thereby calling forth the response of Love.

Mrs. Eddy said in “Choose ye,” her dedicatory Message to The Mother Church, that Christian Science reveals God as giving all, and man as having all that God gives. (Sentinel, June 16, 1906.) Our wealth, therefore, is to know that we have, because God has, and because we reflect the infinite. This we realize only in the measure to which we awake from the limitations of material sense. Paul says, “Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face.” The attainment of this consciousness demands of us the consecration of every thought and requires that we bring “all the tithes into the storehouse.” Selfishness, envy, as well as idleness, will debar us from realizing affluence, the true wealth. The unlimited, inexhaustible ability of divine Mind is reflected in human achievement for good, but the latter is only gained by the sacrifice of self. In proportion as we learn to sink self and to see that God is all reality, we shall prove the prophet’s word, “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” Then shall we make true the beautiful thought of Dryden, “Each day new wealth without their care provides,” and know that “the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.”