Article December 1, 1906 Issue

THE HEAVENLY PLANTING

BLANCHE H. HOGUE.

It is recorded in the 15th chapter of Matthew's Gospel, that Jesus once said, "Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up." Surely the Master knew that the process thus defined encompassed in its fulness the entire scope of salvation, for the uprooting of all that the Father hath not planted, means the eventual and complete destruction of all the evil which human consciousness now seems to embrace, both individually and collectively. The knowledge of the supremacy of good enabled Jesus to foresee and declare the passing away of all unlike good, and sustained him in his own work in the world's vineyard. Very little of this prophecy, however, has been comprehended by the generations which have passed since his work upon earth was accomplished, for the thought-gardens of mortals have been so tangled that even the honest heart has had much trouble in discerning which of its plants were not of the heavenly planting.

In this generation, however, a prophet and guide has arisen, whose message, embodied in her book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," analyzes so clearly all thought conditions, that every impulse, motive, and desire in the heart of man which belongs not to the blossoming of the kingdom of heaven, will in time be seen in its true nature, and uprooted. Every individual who has grown to understand somewhat of the teaching of Mrs. Eddy, does not hesitate to declare, without qualification or apology, that until he became acquainted with Christian Science he saw but dimly the condition of his own thought-gardens; that much which blossomed abundantly and attractively he sees now to have been of an enemy's sowing; and that many unsightly growths were, prior to this enlightenment. tolerated and even justified, because self argues that human nature is not expected to be perfect. The student of Christian Science will agree that the carnal mind is not expected to be perfect, and can only be uprooted and cast away. He will testify further that this teaching discriminates so clearly between what is Christlike and what is carnal, that any student thereof can engage in examining all that grows in his own thoughts, and, thanks to Christian Science, with a keener detection than before of the intruders which have not been planted by the Divine hand.

The time is not far distant when the world's thinkers will give to this book its rightful place, because its remarkable analysis of mental conditions sets before mankind the possibility of obeying clearly and intelligently the Scriptural teaching concerning the destruction of all evil. This book defines unmistakably the line of demarcation between the human mind and the divine Mind. Much that has been excused or classified as good, is seen to belong to the carnal mind, and can no longer claim to be of God and worthy to grow in our mental gardens. The urgent demand of Christian Science makes every one his own gardener, watching his own and not his neighbor's fields of thought and experience. It would often solace the vanity and laziness of human nature could the neighbor's weeds be the subject for consideration, but the process of salvation has been so ordained that not one jot of it is worked out until thought returns, from wandering far afield, to a meek and honest scrutiny of that which lies within its own gates.

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