Article August 3, 1918 Issue

Seed Sowing and Seed Protecting

JOHN RANDALL DUNN

Little can be added to the many helpful things which have been written about the preparatory work, mental and otherwise, which should precede a Christian Science lecture. Throughout the field it is becoming more and more apparent how Christian Scientists realize that a lecture is only another name for seed sowing, and that their work, therefore, is the preparing of the soil for the sower. Seldom indeed in these days does a lecturer respond to the invitation of a church or society and find that the ground has not been well plowed and harrowed and made ready for the planting. Advertising has been faithfully attended to, invitations have been issued judiciously.

It might be well to state in this connection that in many of the smaller cities the most effective advertising of the lectures has been brought about not so much through newspaper publicity and placards in shops and elsewhere,—although a certain amount of such advertising is, of course, essential,—as through the personal touch, through verbal or written invitations to friends or acquaintances who might be interested. In some places the members of a church or society have taken their local telephone directories, made a careful examination thereof, and assigned to different persons the task of inviting, either by telephone or in person, those thought to be not antagonistic. This invitation is given possibly a week before the lecture, and is followed by a telephone call the day of the lecture, lovingly to remind the friend that the appointed day is at hand. One lady sent this cheery word over the telephone to the friends she had previously invited: "I just called to make sure you had not forgotten about the lecture to-night. We shall be so happy to see you, and believe that you will enjoy hearing what Christian Scientists really believe." In practically every instance she was heartily thanked for her thoughtfulness, several persons expressing particular gratitude for the reminder, as they had forgotten the exact date of the lecture.

Assuming then that the preliminary "mental farming" has been faithfully done, a sower comes and sows his seed—sends forth into the human consciousness the joyful message that a complete solution of earth's problems, mental, physical, social, and financial, is to be found in the revelation of scientific Christianity. Why is there not invariably a tremendous turning to Truth in a community at the close of every Christian Science lecture? Jesus answers this question with one of his incomparable parables. He says: "Behold, a sower went forth to sow; and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: ... and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: but others fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit."

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