Article December 14, 1918 Issue

Bread that Satisfies

KATE D. HAWKINS

A few months ago it was found necessary for me to revisit my native land. In the locality where I had been living, the thought and the talk was of nothing but food and rations, with an accompanying fear of ever decreasing supply. This thought must have been allowed to pervade my consciousness deeper than I had realized, as a sense of intense hunger was constantly with me which nothing seemed to satisfy, and I lost weight rapidly. On arriving at my home the same conditions met me, and my terrible sense of hunger continued. By this time I was so emaciated that relations and friends were most anxious about me. I had to keep steadily declaring the allness of Principle, and the unreality of this state which was seeking to deceive us.

One day while lunching at a restaurant, I sat opposite a young person who voiced exactly my feelings, and who was eating in what seemed a famished way. One remark of hers set me thinking. It was to the effect that she wondered where she could find a place to get a good meal before her journey, as she could not go without it, and it did not matter how soon the next meal was to be taken. "I am always hungry now," she added. Then in one of those illuminating flashes of spiritual comprehension the false thought stood out unmasked, showing me how poor and weak is this belief in material sustenance, which could not sustain itself for more than an hour or two in its time-world without constant refreshing, but fainted, failed, and fell under its own so-called law of limitation. This uncovering of evil brought to light vividly the spiritual idea of the real food,—unceasing supply of divine Love, the eternal substance which sustains with its fullness all of God's ideas. In the words of our dear Leader, "The substance of an idea is very far from being the supposed substance of non-intelligent matter" (Science and Health, p. 257). This truer sense of sustenance brought me the greatest joy I have ever experienced since being interested in Christian Science. The sense of hunger left me from that moment, and each day I gained strength and weight. The Master's words, so often quoted, "Take, eat; this is my body," have been a great help, for they were seen in a very different light, although I had always imagined that I had understood them. Truly our real meal is taken long before the material one, which seems so necessary for the support of this mortal belief of life; and as we partake of it we learn that the only substance is Spirit.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Bread that Satisfies

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access