Article March 26, 1927 Issue

Feeding the Multitude

JOHN T. GUTTRIDGE

Bible students are familiar with the wonderful demonstration of God's unlimited supply which Jesus made in the feeding of the five thousand who followed him to a "desert place," and the beautiful lessons he taught thereby. It is recorded in the fourteenth chapter of Mathew that Jesus had compassion on the multitude and "healed their sick." At eventide his disciples, apparently not awake to the fact that the same Christ, Truth, which animated the Master and healed the sick could sustain them all, bade him send the people away, that they might obtain victuals; but the Master answered, "They need not depart; give ye them to eat"—a well-merited rebuke to the limited testimony of material sense, "We have here but five loaves, and two fishes." Then he proceeded to prove substantially the truth of his words. This healing lesson of God's sustaining power may always be studied with profit.

Many, attracted by the healing and regenerating power of the Christ, Truth, as taught and demonstrated in Christian Science, go to our midweek testimony meetings eager to be fed and sustained by the bread of Life. They need never depart without food from these meetings, for the lesson read from the desk, the hymns, the silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord's Prayer, will satisfy. Proofs are also related, to sustain the promises and assurances which have been heard from the desk and sung in the hymns. Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, has lovingly provided for all these in the order of the Wednesday evening meetings, where "experiences, testimonies and remarks on Christian Science" (Church Manual, p. 122) are invited. Here the "give ye them to eat" should be heeded; but to-day as of yore the disciple of this Christ Science, the beneficiary of its healing power, is at times prone to think or say, "I cannot express myself in public with sufficient clearness to be understood," or, "My healing in Christian Science was so small that it would not be appreciated," or, "I have related my healing so many times that it might be tiresome to those who have heard it." These and many other suggestions of so-called mortal mind would send the multitude away without receiving the satisfying proof which this Science offers.

No! "They need not depart; give ye them to eat"! Let us take our offering to God, that He may show us how to be thankful for it and break or share it with others. Then we shall surely gather the fragments thereof in an ever increasing measure. Furthermore, those present at our feast will accept our offering and be filled, if it is given in the spirit of humility, gratitude, and compassion. They will, perchance, take fragments home with them, and feed some loved one who could not attend.

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