Article January 27, 1923 Issue

"Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them"

HATTIE JOHNSON BONNELL

On page 54 of our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," in the chapter Atonement and Eucharist, Mrs. Eddy says in speaking of Jesus: "If that Godlike and glorified man were physically on earth to-day, would not some, who now profess to love him, reject him? Would they not deny him even the rights of humanity, if he entertained any other sense of being and religion than theirs?" It is well for us all, as students of the Science of Christianity, of which Christ Jesus was the perfect exponent and example, to take counsel with ourselves to see if we are giving the Christ-idea all of its rights, our respect and love, wherever we may find it expressed.

The second of the religious tenets of the Christian Science church, to which all members of The Mother Church and of its branches subscribe, includes a specific acknowledgment of one Christ. To be ever mindful of this divine manifestation, as we go about with our fellow-men in daily affairs, would eradicate from our thought the personal element, which material sense would have us take into account. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 166) we read: "This spiritual idea, or Christ, entered into the minutiæ of the life of the personal Jesus. It made him an honest man, a good carpenter, and a good man, before it could make him the glorified." How many of us, when we see true goodness expressed, realize that we are beholding in a degree the manifestation of the Christ? Should we not meet the manifestation in humility, and with confidence that, whatever the seeming, the Christ-idea will unfold in its full stature; and with a prayer in the heart that we be not ensnared into cooperating with the modern scribes and Pharisees and Herods, beware lest we deliver him up to his tormentors?

The writer now looks back on an incident of her childhood which in the light of Christian Science bears a helpful lesson. In a home in a new country, fruit trees for a small orchard had been chosen with care, both for the quality of the fruit and for their early bearing quality. Confidence had been placed in the nurseryman from whom they were purchased that they would be as represented. Considerable care was also exercised in preparing the ground and planting them properly; but the care by no means ended there. All was done that could be done to insure their further well-being. She well remembers with what watchful care the entire family regarded those trees. There was no disappointment about them. As expected, there came the first early crop; some of the trees with little fruitage, but such luscious fruit it was,—lovely color, flavor, and size, and so free from blemishes! Gratitude was expressed by all. No longer was there any shadow of uncertainty as to the kind and quality of the fruit which might be expected from those trees!

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