Nineteen hundred years ago, Jesus said, "He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." Yet for nineteen hundred years since he spoke, and for countless years before, the world has tried to do the very thing he said could not be done. Humanity has tried to get along without that truth which is our Christ, or Saviour, and with what dismal results, history fully records. There has been fruit in abundance, but of what kind? The seeds of ignorance, fear, and superstition have yielded a bountiful crop of sin, disease, and death,—an undesirable fruit, surely. "Abide in me." Jesus could not have referred to his physical, self; he must have been thinking of the Christ, the infinite, ever-present, saving idea, the Son of God and not the son of man. Then, to dwell, or continue in the consciousness of supreme good, means to assure ourselves of "much fruit" of the kind that satisfies. It is very sad to watch the hurried, selfish, heart-breaking struggle to do something, to produce, to accomplish, to get results, in which the human family finds itself so deeply involved. When we stop to ask where it all leads to, we find the end is the same in every case, and the pity of it all comes home to us. The vanity of human endeavor is Egyptian darkness, or it would have seen its own folly ere this. Can we read those words "without me ye can do nothing," and still pursue the weary dream-road that leads us nowhere? Oh, the arrogance, pride, selfwill of the carnal mind that is enmity against Spirit, and that tries to work apart from God!
Moses knew enough about the human mind to know in advance what the Children of Israel were likely to say when they had settled down comfortably in the "good land" and had begun to acquire possessions. He knew that with characteristic impudence, mortal mind would appropriate all the glory of the victory; and, liar that it is, pretend to be the giver of all the good things they were to enjoy. So he warned them in these words: "Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, ... and thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth." We hear again "without me ye can do nothing," and we turn to Science and Health, and read, "We say, 'My hand hath done it.' What is this my but mortal mink, the cause of all materialistic action? ... The divine Mind includes all actions and volition, and man in Science is governed by this Mind" (p. 187).
Nowhere in the field of human endeavor is this healing truth more needed than in the business world. The delusion that mortal man plans, erects, builds, and brings to pass anything, is quite universal in the realm of commerce. It is founded in a misconception as to what constitutes wealth, and as to what is the basis of all business. Christian Science has been called "applied Christianity," and in its applicability to the practical phases of our life, it proves itself to be, in very deed, the Science of being, or the Science of right and successful living.
