God is infinite Love, and He surrounds all His children with an abundance of good. There is no limit to Love's supply of health, activity, and affluence. The law of Love redeems the wayward, strengthens the weak, restores the crippled, and feeds the poor. Obeying this divine law, we are lifted into the conscious reflection of true substance, made manifest in beauty, power, and security.

Christian Science enables us to prove for ourselves that real substance is God, infinite, ever present, and ever available. God's law is a law of never-failing abundance, and our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, makes this divine fact very clear when she writes in "No and Yes" (p. 30), "God's law is in three words, 'I am All;' and this perfect law is ever present to rebuke any claim of another law." These three simple words, "I am All," express the essence and nature of true substance, or reality. From this we learn that substance is not something to be hoarded or regarded as a personal possession which only a few favored folk can attain. It is infinite Spirit, God; and Christian Science, the promised Comforter, has come to enlarge our understanding of its allness and ever-presence.

The divine law of abundant good can never be prevented from making itself manifest. A sublime proof of this was given when Christ Jesus fed the multitude in the wilderness. Our Master's example shows how we too can utilize the same law to destroy a belief of lack. Let us picture that scene as the New Testament records it. (See Matthew 14:15–21.) The great crowds had followed Jesus into the wilderness, eager to hear his words. Night was approaching, and the supplies to care for so large and unexpected a gathering were meager. The anxious disciples, mesmerized by the sense evidence of lack, were wondering how five thousand could be fed with five loaves and two fishes. They implored the Master to send the people away, and it is inspiring to read Matthew's account of what followed. Did Jesus agree that the apparent lack was real? No. He turned immediately to God, knowing that since God is All-in-all, substance is infinite and there is nothing to fear. With calm assurance he said to the troubled disciples, "They need not depart."

The disciples had been looking down at the material evidence of insufficiency. They had been wondering how they could divide five loaves and two fishes to satisfy the hungry throng. The Master's confidence in the Father's never-failing abundance, in God's ever-operative law of supply, enabled him lovingly to invite the people to sit down and be fed. He did not wait for matter or mortal mind to give its consent. He understood that man, in Science, is always sustained by the law of God, eternal substance. And one of the most important steps in the Master's great demonstration can be traced as we read the touching words in the Gospel narrative, "And looking up to heaven, he blessed."

In other words, our Master turned completely and expectantly to God; he boldly rejected the clamor of material sense, which argued for shortage of food and a famine. He looked away from the evidence of the senses. There was no need to try to do something humanly to matter, to the five loaves and two fishes. The presence and power of Love were sufficient to reverse that false picture of scarcity. Christ Jesus established himself and his hungry followers securely under the divine law of infinite abundance.

Christian Science reveals that this proof of the preserving power of God was not a miracle. It was the natural operation of an unchanging law, and the same law is available to us here and now. Our hearts glow with gratitude as we read the Scriptural account of what took place: "And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full."

It is by holding fast to the spiritual fact that man can never be separated from God, the source of all good, that we can follow our Master's grand example. He overcame lack when material methods and wavering faith were not able to bring relief. He understood that man, the reflection of limitless Mind, can never be touched by the false belief of lack. When we humbly bring thought into obedience to the law of infinite good, lack and limitation are proved to be the unreal myths of material sense, incapable of harming us. As we gain a glimpse of the allness and completeness of divine substance, we can share the assurance of limitless abundance which enabled Jesus to feed the five thousand in the wilderness centuries ago. For us now, as it did for them, this exalted view of true substance will manifest itself in a form which satisfies the human need.

When we find ourselves faced with a problem of lack or insufficiency, are we not sometimes tempted to do something to matter, to change the shape of it, to increase the quantity, to contemplate our five loaves and two fishes? Do we look down anxiously at a small bank account or a weekly pay envelope and wonder how we can meet our five thousand obligations? In the Glossary of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 591) Mrs. Eddy defines "Mind" in part as, "Deity, which outlines but is not outlined." Clinging steadfastly to this, let us always begin our work by "looking up to heaven." This will free us from the binding claims of animal magnetism.

A convincing proof of Love's unfailing bounty came to a small family which for many years had been held in bondage by limitation and fear of the future. During a period of business depression the husband had been unemployed for two years, and he had never regained a joyful expectation of good. The position which he now held was meagerly paid and offered no likelihood of promotion. The little home which the family occupied no longer met their needs, but they could not find a buyer for it. The husband had never before sought help in Christian Science, but at this point, when apathy and discouragement seemed to overwhelm them, he joined his wife in requesting the aid of a practitioner. They were soon awakened to see that what they needed was to turn away from their unsatisfying five loaves and two fishes and to look to heaven for their supply. As they began to learn that man is important to God, and that God never neglects him, never denies him the full use of spiritual ideas, their desire to understand God better grew. They turned away from the mesmeric notion that they needed to do something to matter, or with it; instead, they began to look up to heaven. They acknowledged God as the only source of man's employment and supply.

Results followed quickly. An unlooked-for reorganization where the man worked opened the way for increased salary and better working conditions. The house which they had believed was impossible to sell found an appreciative buyer, and the little family moved into a better, brighter home. As they clung persistently to Love's allness their human needs were met one by one. Best of all, they are today rejoicing in a deeper understanding of spiritual abundance, which is never at the mercy of matter or material laws.

Christian Science is indeed the voice of omnipotent Truth, which is heard even in the wilderness where lack seems to prevail. It summons us to awake from the illusions of material sense and to lay hold of our rich heritage as the sons and daughters of God. Reliance on matter, on personal possessions, on worldly pride and authority, must give place to the meekness which acknowledges no other power but the might of divine Love, the law of ever-present good. There is no limit to this might, for God's presence fills all space and reveals itself in abundance of supply and health unlimited. Infinite Love, the All-in-all, includes within its embrace every one of us. Because of this tender relationship, not one of the five thousand in the wilderness could be left out or sent away hungry. Nor can we.

Christ Jesus healed sin and disease instantaneously, just as he overcame lack. We too can do this by humbly following our dear Leader's teachings. We have seen that when our Master fed the multitude he acknowledged no power but the might of divine Love; he obeyed no law but the law of God, eternal substance. This is the law which annuls every seeming curse and blight and frees mortals from fear of evil, hereditary beliefs, so-called health laws, and medical verdicts. The Christ, Truth, reaches us no matter in what extremity of bondage, danger, or sickness we may find ourselves. It appears to the childlike, expectant thought in the angelic form of spiritual intuitions, which dispel fear, apathy, and stagnation, and which impel right action at the right time. Just as the Red Sea divided from shore to shore in obedience to Moses' clear realization of God's guiding and sustaining power, so God's law provides bountifully for us today. We can prove for ourselves that it is not reliance on matter but faith in God's goodness which supplies all human needs. God's law is not at work for only part of the time or for only a chosen few. It is the divine "I am All" which reveals itself everywhere and which all can obey, accept, and enjoy.

Man's God-given dominion over all the earth is demonstrated in proportion as we surrender all belief in a personal material selfhood. As we do this patiently and steadfastly we are able to exchange a false sense of self and responsibility for our true identity as the reflection of perfect, eternal substance. Our beloved Leader tells us (Science and Health, p. 468), "Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay." Every day brings us joyful opportunities to prove the truth of these inspired words. It is by "looking up to heaven" that we are awakened from the masquerade of matter with its five loaves and two fishes. With the realization that there is but one God, one substance, the make-believe of animal magnetism with all its claims of weak substance, diseased substance, crippled substance, fading substance, loses its hold on us and disappears from our experience.

When Christ Jesus healed the palsied man, he proved flesh to be unreal, a counterfeit of substance; and he annulled the belief that matter has sensation and can determine one's health and activity. The healing Christ, Truth, brings us the glorious assurance that matter—sick, painful, stiff, or inflamed—exists only in the realm of belief. The healing rays of Love's presence bring to light man's happy, painless identity in the image and likeness of God.

God's ideas are always near us, closer even than the air we breathe. They comfort us, enlighten us, and enrich us; they guide us into the green pastures of spiritual understanding, the eternal manifestation of divine, ever-present substance.