THE TRUE VINE

BERT A. MILLER.

In conversation with others recently, on the advisability and necessity of all loyal and active members of branch churches becoming members of The Mother Church, in order to receive the full privileges of membership with the "vine" over which our revered Leader has held such loving and careful supervision, the following from the fifteenth chapter of John impressed me very forcibly: "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine ; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches : He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."

We can all plainly see, if we stop to analyze the situation, that no branch church, or its members, can prosper' and progress as they should without realizing the full import of the meaning and object for which The Mother Church was established or founded. In the "Historical Sketch," found in our Church Manual (p. 17), we read that it was "to organize a church designed to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing." Mrs. Eddy further defines church, for the benefit of her followers, in Science and Health (p. 583), as "that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick."

Careful study of the above from the Manual and the Christian Science text-book by members of branch churches ought to arouse within them the realization that it is not only a duty but a privilege to associate themselves in full membership with the greatest religious movement which is before the world today, and in which all should delight to participate actively. To be a member of a Christian Science church at this period means much, and we should not allow ourselves to be mesmerized into a state of idleness, apathy, or self-ease as to our obligations. Merely to attend the services in order to absorb all the good we can, without giving anything in return, or remaining away from the business meetings and allowing others to do our work for us, it being easier thus to do, is not true membership. We should, on the contrary, be about our "Father's business," and imbibe the spirit expressed in one of our beautiful hymns,—

Not forever in green pastures
Do we ask our way to be;
But the steep and rugged pathway
May we tread rejoicingly.

When we realize that there are unnumbered thousands of our fellow-men today who have eyes yet see not, and who have ears yet hear not,—so far as things spiritual are concerned,—we who have been awakened out of this false dream and have turned our faces toward the light should not allow an opportunity to pass in which we can aid some one of Christ's little ones to get a glimpse of that light which never loses its effulgence, but lighteth every man that cometh into the world. One of the greatest avenues available today to reach the vast multitude who are hungering and thirsting after good, is to be found in passing along the Christian Science literature, especially the Monitor, and making friends of all classes who desire clean journalism and pure and wholesome thinking.

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FINE PHOTOGRAVURE OF MRS. EDDY

September 2, 1911

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