AT a time in Jesus' experience when he desired to be apart for quiet communion and spiritual refreshment, the multitude followed him, and lovingly and unselfishly he turned at once to minister to their needs. He taught them many wonderful things, he healed their sick, then he fed them; thus exercising the dominion bestowed upon man by unwavering recognition of the omnipotent and omnipresent goodness of God. The spiritual consciousness of Jesus, the knowledge that Spirit sustains and supplies man, multiplied the loaves and fishes so that there was enough for all and to spare. The thought of the disciples, who believed the supply to be in matter and therefore limited, would have divided the loaves and fishes which they had, so that no one would have had enough.
It would have made no difference to Jesus whether the amount in evidence had been three fishes or three thousand; he would have known that the real supply is substantial, spiritual. Even if enough food had at first been manifest, he would not have been deceived into believing that matter was the source of supply or could feed and sustain man; whereas under such circumstances it is quite probable that the disciples would have lost the greatest lesson of the day by being satisfied that matter was supplying them all, and they would therefore have looked no higher for the source of supply.
There is a mortal belief in a material process of producing loaves and fishes, dollars and business, health and happiness, every supply for human needs. The absence of this process means to mortal sense the lack of the desired product. The spiritual understanding of Jesus, however, eliminated both the material process and the condition of lack, and proved that spiritual processes are the real means of bringing to light God's supply, substance, which is unfailing and sufficient, while matter is neither unfailing nor sufficient. By its very nature it is a negation of spiritual reality, of substance or permanent supply; and by clinging to matter and striving for it, one virtually denies and repudiates substance, thus holding off the supply rather than receiving it naturally. Whenever mortal mind enters the arena of thought, with its complicated, uncertain material processes, it makes hard work of everything and limits good in human experience; whereas God, in the words of Scripture, "giveth to all men liberally." Recognizing his spiritual sonship, every man may say with Jesus, "All things that the Father hath are mine," for all God's children are "joint-heirs with Christ."
