Magnanimous MacDougall

Our two Scottish terriers are more than good playmates. When we acquired Douglass about six months after MacDougall, MacDougall capably assumed the combined roles of father and big brother. When the dinner call came, he would stand by, refraining from eating until he was sure Douglass had enough in his own bowl to satisfy his puppy hunger.

MacDougall could well afford to be generous. He had only to come pattering after me to ask for a refill and he would get it.

My remembrance of Macdougall's best asking face, trusting me for recompense, has often strengthened my trust in divine largess to compensate my own giving. MacDougall may not comprehend the words, but he has definitely captured the magnanimous attitude of Christ Jesus' teaching: "Give, and it shall be given unto you." n1

n1 Luke 6:38

A Scottie doesn't need to understand spiritual substance in order to trust his "people." But understanding all-sufficient substance may help usm to trust more in the divine Love that recompenses all unselfed sharing, and so relieve us of fear that we may run short if we divide what we regard as our dole.

Divine substance is ever-present, indivisible Spirit, God. Substance is selfrenewing, complete. It cannot spend or be spent, for substance is eternally all-in-all.

Substance is magnanimous. It is the essence of generosity. But the divine substance of giving is not so much in the gift itself as in the sharing and caring.

True substance is always more than a bestowal -- more than a recompense, too. Man, the spiritual image of God, is not separate from substance, that he must get it, conserve it, or recover it. Man reflectsm substance.

Because it is purely substantial, God's giving differs from mortals'. It is not a wasting waterfall spilling from on high over a widening pyramid of middlemen until it trickles dry amid insatiable consumers. Because divine substance is allness individually reflected, it is right where we may be tempted to believe we need to put it. Actually, then, we don't deposit substance; we discover it, in prayer.

Jesus said: "ask, and it shall be given you . . . . If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" n2

n2 Matthew 7:7, 11

Spiritual understanding awakens us to realize the divinity of giving, the universality of receiving, and the absolutely spiritual nature of all God's gifts. The sacred quality of magnanimity is never burdened or pressured in its holy mission to fully satisfy every child of God.

The unholy suggestion that magnanimity could be limited to matter launched the Adam-dream that casts material mortals in the role of parents and family providers. The Adam role tills the soil of materiality, vainly attempting to produce and distribute what Spirit alone can substantiate and supply. But the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, saw beyond the figments of the deceitful material senses. She writes: "Wholly apart from this mortal dream, this illusion and delusion of sense, Christian Science comes to reveal man as God's image, His idea, coexistent with Him -- God giving all and man having all that God gives." n3

n3 The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,m P. 5.

God, through His Science, helps us understand His nature as Father and provider. The divine substance of Spirit fathers and mothers us all. Demonstration of our responsibilities and rights as God's children relieves us of the burden of fear and the pressure of doubt and opens up to us the magnanimity of true substance.

The divine source of inexhautible, spiritual substance freely circulates His heavenly treasure of spiritual ideas. Like MacDougall, we can well afford to be generous in sharing our knowledge and the fruits of our demonstration of ineffable benevolence. Our heavenly Father-Mother, incessant substance, tolerates no unmet need. God, the irrepressible Giver of all good, magnanimously feeds His beloved family. DAILY BIBLE VERSE He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack. Proverbs 28:27