To the agriculturist, often harassed by spurious laws concerning soil, weather, and pest invasion, Christian Science brings the revealment that true propagation is not a process of material reproduction, but is the forever appearing of God's creation through His ideas. The unceasing expression or reflection of God's being constitutes His multifarious creation, man and the universe.
In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy says (p. 507): "Creation is ever appearing, and must ever continue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source. Mortal sense inverts this appearing and calls ideas material." And in the same paragraph she adds: "But the seed is in itself, only as the divine Mind is All and reproduces all—as Mind is the multiplier, and Mind's infinite idea, man and the universe, is the product. The only intelligence or substance of a thought, a seed, or a flower is God, the creator of it."
Self-existent Mind creates and maintains all, from the smallest manifestation of substance and life to the highest idea, man. The plant and the lesser creatures are in reality various manifestations of Mind, and when their origin and nature are spiritually discerned they assume to human consciousness more perfection, grandeur, and goodness. We are told in Genesis (2:4, 5) that before there was a man to till the ground and before there was any rain, God made "every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew." Significantly, this statement appears before "there went up a mist" to dim discernment of that which is. How comforting it is to see that the safety and continuity of the plant of the field rest primarily in God and are not dependent upon mortals, earth, sun, or weather. The plant was made "before it grew." Every idea is held in Mind in its full status of maturity and fruitfulness now.
