Jesus was about to leave his followers. They needed much direction and protection. He gave them his lovely simile of the vine and the branches—the vine representing the Christ and the branches his followers, bearing fruit as a natural result of their oneness with him. This growth and fruitage are cared for and protected by the husbandman, the Father, divine Principle.
The members of the Church of Christ, Scientist, have the dual directive from Christ Jesus and from Mrs. Eddy, the Founder of their church, to grow in the understanding and proof of the Christ. Healing the sick and the sinning is to be the natural outcome of the recognition of the Christ as the source of vitality—the activity of God, proving His allness in each specific case. The ultimate fruit of the Christ, the true idea of being, is the disappearance of matter belief. Its progressive manifestation is the healing of the sick and the destroying of sin.
In joining The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, the Christian Scientist dedicates himself to a life in Christ. He undertakes to demonstrate the guidance and dominion that come from the Father's pruning of his particular branch of the vine. Mrs. Eddy speaks of this individual fruitage in a letter to a branch church, "You sit beneath your own vine and fig-tree as the growth of spirituality—even that vine whereof our Father is husbandman." Miscellaneous Writings, p. 154;
