Article September 13, 1900 Issue

Pulling the Weeds

BY L. G. O.

A few days ago while pulling the weeds along the back walk, I had many uplifting thoughts which I will try to put into words, hoping they may help some one as I have so often been helped through that blessed messenger of Love, the Sentinel.

I started out with a fixed purpose to pull the weeds along the walk, but soon found myself wandering away ever so far, straining and reaching and really accomplishing very little, when right at hand was more than I had the time to uproot. I came back and started afresh. There were all kinds of weeds; the tough and bold standing up straight and tall, seeming to say, "Try me if you dare; I am too much for your feeble strength." But when they were grasped firmly they were comparatively easy to uproot. Then came a small vine which was grasped in a halfhearted manner. I was surprised that it did not yield. I pulled harder and a small bit broke off in my hand, then I began to look for the root. Following branch after branch I finally reached the root. I gave a good strong pull and up it came, bringing with it countless branches I had not seen and would not have believed were there. It was quite large and uncovered countless bugs, worms, and nests of vermin which hurried away in dire alarm at the penetrating rays of the sun. When I was through the ground looked ragged and torn, and as I looked I wondered if I had improved it any, but during the day came a flood of rain and the ground was smooth and clean.

Thus it is in our daily experiences. When Christian Science first touches us we start out bravely but soon find ourselves wandering away from the tasks of to-day to speculate on the future or sigh over the past. Meantime the weeds of mortal thought are growing apace; when we come back and go to work earnestly the bold, hard thoughts that mortals call wrong are easily see: and destroyed, but not so with the hidden, secret, creeping thoughts. When by patient, earnest seeking we find the roots they seem to rend our very heart-strings, so interwoven are they with our whole being, seemingly, but by faithfulness they are finally uprooted, and what was under it. all uncovered. The sunlight of Truth pours in illumining and uplifting. All the loathsome vermin of mortal thought disappear, for they cannot live in the sunlight of Truth. Thus the battle leaves us scarred and ofttimes weary, but victorious. Then come the floods of spiritual understanding, rounding off the corners, leveling up the work, and leaving all in harmony for the growth of tender humility, typified by the grass.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

What is Christian Science?