Standing in a great forest and looking up at the colossal giants of pine as they grow in the East, the spruce and hemlock of the North, the redwood of the Pacific slope, or the mahogany and rosewood and cedar of the far South, who has not felt inspired at the sight? Looking through the canopy of green boughs into the immensity of a sky most beautifully blue, walking through nature's temple decorated in sunlight and shadow and gladdened by twittering nestling and mother bird's loving call, who, looking and laughing in very joyousness, has not turned in memory to the sweet singer of Israel and his beautiful simile in the first psalm, wherein he compares the godly man to "a tree planted by the rivers of water"? Thus thinking, one is reminded of the aptness of the comparison and finds new reasons for gratitude to God and to the Discoverer of Christian Science for the way-marks of Truth contained in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" that enable us to see so much of beauty and freshness and helpfulness in the Bible, which to some of us formerly seemed so unattractive and unsatisfactory because not understood.
The lesson in the passage of Scripture referred to is only appreciated to the fullest through the recognition of the condition required to become the recipient of the blessings of growth and stability which the psalmist described as being "like a tree." It is manifestly implied that an understanding of divine law, and love for that law and obedience thereto, are the absolute requirements antecedent to the benefits of "the law of the Lord." As Mrs. Eddy tells us in "No and Yes" (p. 30), "God's law is in three words, 'I am All;' and this perfect law is ever present to rebuke any claim of another law." Some knowledge of that law, coupled with the loving desire to obey it, is the open secret of the happiness of Christian Scientists the world over. This was the sustaining ideal of Jesus; it constituted the potentiality of our Leader's great discovery; it explains the unfaltering hope of Moses, the inspiration of Peter and Paul, the song of David, who with prophetic vision saw the hosts of those redeemed from false beliefs, the triumphant, the fruitful, the enduring, and with spiritual understanding exclaimed, "He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."
In no way is this similarity more apparent than in the fact that storms help, rather than hinder, a tree in its perfect root development. As the tree is shaken in the wind even when young, the ground is loosened, the roots go deeper and grip the earth tighter; then even before its full growth is attained, it laughs, shaking its leaves in the face of the tempest, while glorying in the joy of overcoming. If there were no storms in the beginning of its growth, no tree could stand a gale even though it should seem to be fully developed.
