Hosea admonished the Israelites to break up their fallow ground, that mental state which, if left uncultivated and unproductive of spiritual activity, brings forth only weeds and rubbish. This admonition was pronounced some five centuries before Christ Jesus, and today we find public speakers and high ecclesiastical authorities repeating the message. It seems that the dire necessities of the moment are urging all men to inquire where mankind has been so lacking that the people have turned to spiritual sources so little for their inspiration in the difficulties and dangers of these days.
No illustration' could more accurately describe much general thinking than that fallow state which outwardly is often indifferent, lazy, money-loving, incoherent, and dissatisfied. And yet, when an emergency arises, and the fallow ground is violently disturbed, what an outpouring of energy, determination, and righteous motive and action comes to light! The question then inevitably arises, Why cannot all those activities be gathered into more productive efforts?
The student of Christian Science who has to deal practically with all these conditions in his own life and in his practice, naturally tries to discern their causes, as well as their effects; and in the Bible, with the light thrown upon it by the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, a clear view of the processes through which human thought has passed presents itself. The patriarchal records picture for us a primitive form of belief in one God, without image or fetish of any kind. This simplicity seems to have been maintained until the Hebrews were submitted to the enslavement of Egypt. There for four hundred years they were surrounded by one of the most highly developed occult systems the world has ever known, and it is evident that their simple beliefs gradually became poisoned by the excitements of devil worship and idolatry. Their subsequent history shows that the hankering after all the sensual emotionalism such conditions evolved became an obsession with them.
