The instantaneous demonstration of divine Principle was the great characteristic of the Master's ministry. Whenever and wherever the human need legitimately presented itself, there and then did Jesus prove the availability of spiritual law. Neither time nor place was reckoned with, for Jesus dealt solely with the present necessity. The Biblical records of healing go to prove that reliance on climate, diet, or drugs was eschewed by Christ Jesus, who is the Way-shower for all time. Recognizing that discord is the product of mortal mind, Jesus paid no heed to the body but released the sufferer from his false belief.
All Christians should find the key to their Master's prompt demonstrations of dominion over error. Since divine Mind is forever radiating its wide blessings without let or hindrance; since Love gives impartially and never withholds, is it not evident that a delay is sometimes due to a lack of understanding of how to yield to divine Principle? Jesus knew the unreality of evil, but do we sometimes measure the mote in our brother's eye through the beam in our own eye? Neither pride nor dishonesty can compromise with divine Principle. Jesus was promptly obedient in thought, word, and deed. He dealt with error from the standpoint of Truth, and so ruled it out. Proving himself impervious to temptation, he always remained serenely conscious of the oneness of Mind and its idea. No matter how insistent the false evidence of the senses, no matter how great the test of his understanding, Christ Jesus never tarried or dallied, but yielded prompt allegiance to Principle. The long hours spent in prayer and fasting in communion with Truth enabled him to think truly even in the midst of apparent evil. Jesus knew that sin and sickness, together with all their material accompaniments, were mere shadows of human belief; and he understood that in the infinite "Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" these seeming shadows have no abiding place.
His disciples, however, still believed in materialism, hence in its limitations. When apparently faced with a hungry multitude in a desert place, fear and ignorance betrayed them into beseeching their Master to "send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals." What depth of spiritual insight and tenderness underlay the Master's simple reply: "They need not depart; give ye them to eat." It is as though he had said: Mind is unceasingly expressing its abundance through spiritual man, everywhere. Why, then, need they depart to neighboring villages? Throughout the experience which followed, Mind's supply was demonstrated and none fell short, for "whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with the loaves and the fishes,—Spirit, not matter, being the source of supply," as Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 206). When the belief in lack of any kind is destroyed by Truth, then God does indeed furnish a table in the wilderness.
