Students of Christian Science are grateful for the inspiring examples of the master Metaphysician in demonstrating the truth of supply. And as fully grateful are they for the spiritual light which Christian Science casts upon the sacred records, enabling them to gain inspiration, instruction, and direction whereby to follow, at least in some degree, our Master's example. According to the Scriptural record of his feeding of the five thousand in a desert place, his conversation with his disciples was, in part, as follows: "Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. He said, Bring them hither to me."
We may infer that Jesus meant much more than merely bringing the material loaves and the fishes to him personally, for in the light of Christian Science we realize that our Master repeatedly instructed his disciples to turn from corporeality and mortal-mindedness to realize man's true selfhood, as the reflection of Life, Truth, Love, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience.
"Bring them hither to me," may be taken as an appeal to his disciples not to accept such a limited sense of substance as represented to mortal thought by five loaves and two fishes; but rather as a command to them to recognize Spirit as the only substance, unlimited and infinite. When the disciples brought to the Master the few loaves, representing their limited, human sense of supply, in the light of his understanding what happened? In the presence of his realization of infinite Spirit, limitation, doubt, fear, and hunger disappeared, for divine Love abundantly fed the hungry in that "desert place."
How often would present-day human lack and sickness recede from mortal consciousness if men, at first through faith, would obey the divine injunction implied in Jesus' words, "Bring them hither to me"! The disciples were obedient to their Master's command relating, in that case, to the loaves and fishes, although, as yet, they did not fully understand the power he demonstrated. When they failed to heal an epileptic boy, there had come similar instruction, "Bring him hither to me," and there followed the same inevitable, triumphant proof of spiritual power.
However slender and inadequate may seem our resources to meet the seemingly impossible demands upon them, if we would only bring the good which we have to Christ, defined by Mrs. Eddy as "the divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error" (Science and Health, p. 583), we should find that that which claims to be a limited individual believing himself to be sick, or lacking some vital necessity, is only a spurious or counterfeit sense which may be put off as the right idea of man is gained. Through divine Science it is seen and understood that as God is all-inclusive Spirit, Soul, Mind, there are no other minds, hence nothing believing itself sick or limited.
Referring to the First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," Mrs. Eddy says in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 467): "This me is Spirit. Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no truth, no love, but that which is spiritual." Man in Science is the reflection or image of Spirit. Man's individuality is not separate from Spirit, God, but reflects and abides in Spirit, God. Enlightened with Truth and Love, faith rises to spiritual understanding. The human sense of self yields to the divine sense, and man is understood to be the reflection of God, or infinite Mind, and as such is never sick, never limited, never substanceless, indeed never humiliated by any phase of human thinking. According to the degree of understanding and the spirit of Truth and Love entertained by men, this glimpse of heaven comes down to earth under natural spiritual law to be humanly manifested in improved health or affluent supply, as the case may require.
Christ Jesus' method of bringing every human problem to the light of his spiritual understanding, as expressed in his words, "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works," confounded the human arguments and material evidence that contradicted divine decrees or presumed to violate the law of Love. The revelation of divine Science which came to the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science makes Christ Jesus' method available for the use of all.
The words of the Master, quoted at the commencement of this article, show the absolute authority of divine Science, and consequently encourage men to place their full trust in God. The disciples were told authoritatively that the hungry need not depart; that is, they were not to be sent away unsatisfied. There and then they were to receive of Love's bounty; and they were capable of receiving it. "Give ye them to eat," said Jesus. The disciples were to accept the full responsibility for carrying out the command. In other words, they were to act with authority, and were to learn that this was humanly possible—as the outcome showed. Thus the Master drove home the great fact which Christian Science teaches today, that we are always to regard man as he truly is—God's own image and likeness, always perfect and possessed abundantly of all good. And this knowledge endows the Christian Scientist with divine power and authority to destroy material evidence to the contrary.
In the demonstration of the truth the erroneous human evidence, however evil, dreadful, or drastic, must always be denied by turning away from material sense to the spiritual —from matter to Spirit. To do this effectively the demonstrator denies his own limited sense, never counting his loaves and fishes—his sense of adequacy or inadequacy. The helper must know himself spiritually as God's reflection, and must bring his problem to Spirit through Christ as defined in Christian Science. He must realize the one Mind as doing all in infinite perfection. Then he can confidently accept whatever responsibility is rightly his. In the face of all erroneous human or mortal arguments of sin, disease, disaster, or lack, he can authoritatively demonstrate that man is always the beloved divine image, in whom the Father is well pleased, and who partakes continually of His divine substance and perfection.
