The Laborer and His Hire MARY BAKER EDDY          In reply to letters questioning the consistency of Christian Scientists taking pay for their labors, and with the hope of relieving the questioners' perplexity, I will say: Four years after my discovery of Christian Science, while taking no remuneration for my labors, and for healing all manner of diseases, I was confronted with the fact that I had no monetary means left wherewith to hire a hall in which to speak, or to establish a Christian Science home for indigent students, which I yearned to do, or even to meet my own current expenses. I therefore halted from necessity.          I had cast my all into the treasury of Truth, but where were the means with which to carry on a Cause? To desert the Cause never occurred to me, but nobody then wanted Christian Science, or gave it a halfpenny. Though sorely oppressed, I was above begging and knew well the priceless worth of what had been bestowed without money or price. Just then God stretched forth His hand. He it was that bade me do what I did, and it prospered at every step. I wrote "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," taught students for a tuition of three hundred dollars each, though I seldom taught without having charity scholars, sometimes a dozen or upward in one class. Afterwards, with touching tenderness, those very students sent me the full tuition money. However, I returned this money with love; but it was again mailed to me in letters begging me to accept it, saying, "Your teachings are worth much more to me than money can be."          It was thus that I earned the means with which to start a Christian Science home for the poor worthy student, to establish a Metaphysical College, to plant our first magazine, to purchase the site for a church edifice, to give my church The Christian Science Journal, and to keep "the wolves in sheep's clothing," preying upon my pearls, from clogging the wheels of Christian Science.          When the great Master first sent forth his students, he bade them take no scrip for their journey, saying, "The laborer is worthy of his hire." Next, on the contrary, he bade them take scrip. Can we find a better example for our lives than that of our Master? Why did he send forth his students first without, and then with, provision for their expenses? Doubtless to test the effect of both methods on mankind. That he preferred the latter is evident, since we have no hint of his changing this direction; and that his divine wisdom should temper human affairs, is plainly set forth in the Scriptures. Till Christian Scientists give all their time to spiritual things, live without eating, and obtain their money from a fish's mouth, they must earn it in order to help mankind with it. All systems of religion stand on this basis.          The law and the gospel, — Christian, civil, and educational means, — manufacture, agriculture, tariff, and revenue subsist on demand and supply, regulated by a government currency, by which each is provided for and maintained. What, then, can a man do with truth and without a cent to sustain it? Either his life must be a miracle that frightens people, or his truth not worth a cent.   "The Laborer and His Hire" by Mary Baker Eddy The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 214 - 216

 

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