Article March 28, 1914 Issue

Awakened Thought

ANNA GREENE

Some years before I was fully awakened to the truth taught in Christian Science, a friend told me how she prepared hyacinth bulbs to bloom in the house during the winter. She gave me a very simple rule to follow, and her description of the joy and beauty which so abundantly rewarded her effort was so vividly impressed upon my thought that I at once secured bulbs and faithfully carried out the directions given. I planted them, and placed them in a dark corner of the cellar until they had made the growth necessary before they could bear the light. This part of my work finished, I had to wait many weeks for the blossom of my hope; but there was never a thought of impatience at what might seem a long delay. I held to the vision of joy and beauty that was developing for me, and no thought of the damp, dark cellar or the lifeless appearing bulb ever disturbed me. My faith looked up continually to behold the flowers that were soon to appear. Never did a thought of failure mar my vision, and in "the fulness of the time" the sweet unfolding buds came, and they were even more beautiful than my dream of them. A florist who saw them said, "Never have I seen such magnificent hyacinths, and I have been interested in their culture for years."

The next year I secured other bulbs of the same variety, as nearly as possible. I followed the rule just as carefully in planting and placing in the cellar, but there I left them. At long intervals I thought of them, but with indifference. carelessly dismissing the matter with, Oh, they will be all right, the others did so well. Success without understanding had put me to sleep, when the same faithfulness was needed in the case of the second planting as with the first. The result was indifferent bloom, lacking in every phase of its development, and the same conditions will prevail in the mental realm if unceasing faithfulness be lacking.

Today, with thought awake and seeking to be governed by reality, I was pondering in my heart the wonderful understanding of God that comes through the study of the Bible, in the light of Christian Science, when a great wave of desire swept my thought that I might realize more fully and hold perpetually this vision of the Christ. Then I remembered my experience with and I saw clearly that the first planting was nourished and developed through continuous right thought, while the second was starved and dwarfed for lack of it. This, I thought, is humanity's experience, and I understood as never before the significant words of our Leader on page 17 of Science and Health, "Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections."

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