Article November 10, 1934 Issue

"Children, have ye any meat?"

ALLAN CARSON

THE ever present Christ, Truth, is unceasingly calling to poor, lonely, discouraged, sin-sick humanity, "Children, have ye any meat?" Christian Science is teaching mankind how to avail themselves of this invitation, how to partake of the bread of Life and so gain happiness and blessedness. The Apostle John records that it was morning when Christ Jesus addressed the words quoted above to seven of his disciples on the shore of the sea of Tiberius, where the disciples had fished all night and "caught nothing." Three years previous to this these disciples had forsaken their worldly occupations to become followers of the Master and learn of his doctrine. He had taught them how to heal all manner of sickness, destroy false beliefs of lack, and even raise the dead, through the application of God's law of love. They had been actively engaged in this work.

But a season of mental darkness had engulfed them. They had seemed to miss the way when Jesus was no longer with them. The visible means to carry on the great cause must have been meager. They were few in number. The world ridiculed their doctrine. The tasks confronting them must have seemed overwhelming. Responding, perhaps, to false suggestions, they had decided to return to their fishing nets, with complete failure as the result. Yet their mental darkness was of short duration, as it always is to those leaning on divine Love. The foundations they had laid on the rock, Christ, were not to be washed away by a flood of false suggestions. Their honest desires and petitions, their efforts to be more Godlike, had won for them immortal spiritual footholds, from which they could not be dislodged. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." There on the shore, as the morning sun broke across the rippled waters, stood their dear Master, calling to them with a tenderness and compassion that touched their hearts with unspeakable joy, "Children, have ye any meat?"

A great light had pierced the darkness. Gloom had given place to glory, discouragement to joyous anticipation. The false arguments which had tempted them to forsake Spirit for matter were unmasked, and the disciples were ready to continue the work of ministering to the needy with stronger faith than before.

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