Article October 23, 1909 Issue

HUMAN NEEDS

WALTER SHAW.

When Jesus fed the multitude, it was doubtless because it was evident to him that in the human sense they needed food. In one account we read that the people had been with Jesus a long time and had nothing to eat. Their truly absorbed interest in the Masters teaching had made them forget hunger, and the great heart of our Saviour was touched by their yearning for the truth. Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health, p.427), "Immortal Mind, governing all, must be acknowledged as supreme in the physical realm, so called, as well as in the spiritual;" that is, all our human wants and conditions are subject to the Principle and rule by which universal harmony is attained, and the apparent hindrances to the realization of this fact have ultimately no power to withstand divine law.

Humanly speaking, how could five loaves and a few fishes satisfy the hunger of that enormous crowd, for human sense is ever unable to grasp the exhaustless abundance of spiritual supply. We may need a tenant for a house, a purchaser for property, customers for business, employment that shall yield us salary, all legitimate requirements according to our circumstances, in order to demonstrate to ourselves or others the harmony which an adequate knowledge of the truth brings. It is desirable, however, always to remember that in reality there is no matter, and that all these things merely represent different stages of our human consciousness. Reality is spiritual, and harmonious results follow the correct application of the Principle of Christian Science. The joy of relief from pain or discord is often quite overwhelmed by a glorious sense of God's presence and power thus manifested to us, and people are constantly giving testimony to this spiritual uplift.

Our demonstrations over financial problems may be protracted, because in these instances our fears are apt to be greater and more subtle than in the case of bodily ailments. We may be entertaining a martyrlike air of resignation to circumstances, or our fear may be so great that for the time being we are oblivious to aught else, and meet the adverse circumstance undismayed. Our motives must also be devoid of a desire for mere sense gratification. It has been said that if Jesus had yielded to the temptation to "command these stones to be made bread" it is probable that he would have been unable to feed the five thousand. The sense of hunger never controlled Jesus any more than did fear. He faced and mastered every human condition, and thus he was "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." the sin of yielding to a belief that something besides God,good, has power.

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