Editorial December 14, 1963 Issue

A Spiritual View of Supply

Carl J. Welz

Arithmetic has two basic processes: addition and subtraction. Multiplication is simply a rapid method of adding a number to itself (6X3 = 6+6+6). Division is simply a rapid method of subtraction (9÷3 = 3 or the number of times 3 may be subtracted from 9).

There are two ways to look at supply: the spiritual and the material. The material way surveys the amount available, determines how much of that amount is required for one day's living, and then attempts to forecast by division how many times the daily amount may be subtracted from the total before the supply is exhausted. Or it may, unwisely, attempt to increase the amount on hand by mentally visualizing a multiplying process. This is but wishful thinking, and although it may appear to be metaphysical, it is just as material as division or subtraction.

When Christ Jesus fed the five thousand, he did not calculate the amount each individual would eat and how many individual portions could be subtracted from the total before the supply was gone; nor did he mentally visualize the multiplication of the five loaves and two fishes the disciples had on hand.

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