Article August 5, 1967 Issue

Love Meets Our Needs

WILLIAM J. EMERY

In the sixth chapter of Mark there is an account of Christ Jesus' feeding the multitude. When Jesus commanded his disciples, Give ye them to eat," Mark 6:37; their thought immediately turned to human ways and means. Their inquiry, "Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?" showed their trust in material methods. Jesus, knowing that matter could never provide a satisfying solution to any problem, did not answer their question. Instead he asked, "How many loaves have ye?" By his question Jesus directed his disciples to an appreciation of what was already present.

The Master clearly recognized that the solution to any problem does not lie outside one's thinking. When individual thought is spiritualized, a solution to any problem can be found right where the problem seems to be. The five loaves and two fishes did not present a picture of limitation to Jesus because he discerned the spiritual substance they represented. And he demonstrated God's loving provision for His entire creation. The incident reveals the radical difference of outlook between that of Jesus and that of his disciples. They had turned to material means to solve the problem; Jesus turned to spiritual means.

Christian Science is teaching humanity how to emulate the works of Christ Jesus by placing their entire trust in God. Its teachings demonstrate that mankind must rely upon God, Spirit, as the means of resolving the untoward conditions of any experience. Christian Science emphasizes the need to spiritualize thought. This means to exchange human concepts for the spiritual understanding of God and of man's relationship to Him. Mrs. Eddy writes: "Our reliance upon material things must be transferred to a perception of and dependence on spiritual things. For Spirit to be supreme in demonstration, it must be supreme in our affections, and we must be clad with divine power. Purity, self-renunciation, faith, and understanding must reduce all things real to their own mental denomination, Mind, which divides, subdivides, increases, diminishes, constitutes, and sustains, according to the law of God." Retrospection and Introspection, p. 28;

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