In the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Luke is recorded a vital experience which has been a source of inspiration to many Bible students. The command of Christ Jesus, "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught," was given to Simon at a time when discouragement, fruitless toil, and failure probably were clamoring for recognition in the thoughts of the fishermen. We are told that he and his companions had toiled all night, and had taken nothing, so they had left their ships "and were washing their nets."
The blessed Master, whose vision reached beyond the disheartening evidence of the physical senses and discerned the spiritual receptivity of the humble fisherman, entered into Simon's ship and requested him to "thrust out a little from the land." Then, after calmly instructing in the Word of God those who had followed him, he gave, with spiritual authority, that command which was to result in a manifestation of supply far beyond the highest expectation of the astonished fishermen. Not only was Simon's little craft filled, but there was an overflowing abundance to share with others who had met with like disappointment.
While the outward expression of abundance supplied in full measure the human need, the real demonstration, which dispelled the illusion of lack and inactivity, was the functioning of divine law and the proof of its supremacy over the mesmeric suggestions of material sense. Thus the Master was doing far more than making manifest a satisfying sense of material supply. He was proving the spiritual fact that divine Mind, being everywhere and all-inclusive, manifests infinite self-expression; and that man by reflection is eternally coexistent with this Mind. Jesus' understanding of this divine relationship as the only reality of being enabled him at all times to demonstrate the spiritual nature and availability of true substance. Mrs. Eddy says of him (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 313), "He plunged beneath the material surface of things, and found the spiritual cause."
