Article March 10, 1934 Issue

Feeding the Multitudes

FLORENCE IRENE GUBBINS

WE read in the fifteenth chapter of Matthew's Gospel that Jesus, beholding the multitudes that had come to him in the wilderness, said to his disciples, "I have compassion on the multitude, ... and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way." They replied, "Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?" But what did Jesus do? We read that he took what they had, seven loaves and a few little fishes, and "gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled."

Seeing the multitudes today in the wilderness of material beliefs, as students of Christian Science we may be tempted to be appalled at the largeness of the multitude and at the smallness of our understanding with which to feed it; and yet the command to us, the disciples of Truth, is, "Give ye them to eat." The measure of our understanding may appear to us to be as small as seven loaves "and a few little fishes," so to speak, but if our understanding is the understanding of unadulterated truth it contains the elements necessary to fuller unfoldment. Therefore we should know that upon our understanding rests the blessing stated in the first chapter of Genesis, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it." Then we shall not be afraid to put to use the understanding we have attained, and it will reach the receptive thought, which will in turn distribute this bread to the waiting multitudes.

Let us not say of the understanding we have already gained, What is it among so many erroneous beliefs? It is greater than the biggest false belief; and through putting it into practice, distributing what we have, it grows and does its part in leavening the thought of the world. We read that Jesus broke the bread. Thus, as typified in his feeding of the four thousand, the multitudes were fed by what he had explained to his disciples of eternal Life; and they in turn, through their ministry, had distributed and must continue to distribute this living bread.

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God's Eternal Day
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