Mary Baker Eddy enlightens us on the subject of abundance in a remarkable passage in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany." There she says (p. 340), "The dark days of our forefathers and their implorations for peace and plenty have passed, and are succeeded by our time of abundance, even the full beneficence of the laws of the universe which man's diligence has utilized." Christian Scientists know that they need not implore God, who is good and infinite, for what He is already supplying. They understand that they must diligently demonstrate His law of abundance, which operates ceaselessly and universally.
This law prevails in the consciousness of the real man, God's image and likeness; but human beings must awaken to its presence, come into accord with its spirit, and give up their fear of limitation. Mankind need to learn that spiritual activity rather than material wealth constitutes substance. The more spiritual activity an individual manifests the less lack he will experience, for spiritual activity demonstrates the divine law, which interprets supply in terms of God's will. One who looks away from the evidence of inadequate supply to the abundance of spiritual ideas which the Father forever provides finds plenty unfolding within his consciousness—appearing in his experience.
If Christ Jesus had seen finality in the meager supply of loaves and fishes, the twelve baskets full of food would not have been left over when the multitude had been satisfied. But the Master knew the power to multiply good which lies in the action of sharing good. We read that he "took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude" (Matt. 14:19). The account continues, "They did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full." When we look beyond matter into the divine kingdom, we find the law of supply in perpetual operation and ideas in abundance. Our present estimate of supply—our few loaves and fishes—yields to the truth of affluence when we share the ideas we understand. As we think more abundantly, our sense of supply is transformed.
