THE experience of agriculturists, horticulturists, and gardeners, professional and amateur, would tend to acceptance of the belief that for every plant, shrub, or tree there is some kind of pest, either vegetable or animal, that is capable of injuring or destroying it. For example, there is the dodder, which derives its sustenance from the plant about which it twines itself. Various other vegetable parasites are familiar to workers in the fields of agriculture and horticulture. It may be said, broadly speaking, that everything in the so-called material world is subject to some kind of injurious or destructive agency. This is due to the nature of mortal mind. It appears to create, only to destroy.
Because of these conditions, those who are in the business of growing, or promoting and protecting the growth of plants, trees, and flowers, find it necessary to devote a large part of their time to the use of various means in order to protect these objects from the deleterious effects of different kinds of pests. But students of Christian Science who are engaged in this sort of work have frequently found that their most efficacious and permanent means of protection against blight of various kinds is in being alert and faithful in the application to their problems of some of the fundamental rules of divine metaphysics. This does not mean that Christian Scientists who are growers may not have found it advisable, at times, to resort to material expedients for the arresting of blight and pest, especially when the feelings of their neighbors had to be considered.
However, students of Christian Science are seeing more and more clearly that the complete and permanent eradication of pests can finally be brought about only through radical reliance on metaphysical or spiritual means. The reason for this is obvious. The elimination of any kind of pest through the use of material means does not ensure against a recurrence of the condition, any more than the removal of a diseased condition of the physical body by material means can prevent a return of that condition. So, if a pest of any kind is destroyed by the use of material agencies today, a similar condition may appear tomorrow, next week, or next season. When a bodily disease or an abnormal growth is seen as false belief only, it can be permanently eliminated and destroyed through the operation of divine Mind. And all forms of blight and pestilence can be and eventually must be thoroughly and permanently eradicated in the same manner— through the understanding and application of spiritual law.
