A lovely young flowering gum tree in my garden had become diseased and seemed to be struggling for existence. The top half of the tree had lost its leaves, and the branches were black and brittle. A horticulturist told me that it could not survive and should be removed.
Then I began to think of the spiritual qualities the tree presented to me. I saw quite clearly that beauty, strength, activity, and vitality were qualities not of matter but of God, who is Life; therefore they could not be subject to material beliefs of chance, change, disease, or death.
Deciding to leave the tree where it was, I declared, each time I saw or thought of it, that, in reality, it was a spiritual idea, and represented the Life of all creation. I knew that Life's idea is presented eternally in its pristine perfection, unseen and untouched by material sense. It is as perfect now as when "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Gen. 1:31;
