Editorial November 6, 1915 Issue

Harvest Lessons

Annie M. Knott

The great Teacher had much to say about sowing and reaping, and it is well for us to cling to the fact that the good seed and its fruitage were given first place in his discourses and their permanence was shown. It is true that he exposed the work of the enemy,—the sowing of tares while men slept,—but he told in no uncertain terms of the annihilation of evil, whatever its manifestation, when he said that the angels would gather out of his Father's kingdom "all things that offend;" not merely a few of them, but all, and that then would follow the triumph of the righteous, when they shall "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

Of old the promise was made to Noah that "while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest ... shall not cease." In a paragraph where this promise is cited, Mrs. Eddy outlines in mental terms the great world-struggle and says (Science and Health, p. 96), "Love will finally mark the hour of harmony, and spiritualization will follow, for Love is Spirit." In a long discourse found in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, Jesus says, "The harvest is the end of the world." This would imply that many existing conditions have been of slow growth, that is, to mortal sense, and these are the ones which most need to be reckoned with. In Christian Science we know that only good is eternal, but its upspringing in human consciousness often seems to be very slow. Christian Scientists however take refuge in the account of creation given in the first chapter of Genesis, where the seed brings forth "after his kind" and all the divine creation is pronounced good. In human history we read of thorns and thistles, but we are told that these are the outward manifestations of disobedience to God's law on the part of mortals.

It may be remarked here that many of the discords which spring up, whether sickness or sin, are due to ignorance of God's law rather than to wilful transgression; but just the same these must all be "rooted up," as the Master declared, not allowed to multiply in the soil of human belief, and this rooting up constitutes in large part the work of the Christian Science practitioner. It is at least an indispensable preliminary to the sowing of the good seed. Long ago Christ Jesus said that the harvest was plenteous but the laborers were few. On another occasion he reminded his disciples that "one soweth, and another reapeth," and this is a vital lesson for us today. If we are ever tempted to murmur because the results of our sowing do not quickly appear, we may well ponder Jesus' words, "I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor: other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors."

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