John: Chapter 15

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh it away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit.

METAPHYSICALLY stated, the Father is the God-Mind; Jesus is the individual incarnation of that Mind, here called the true vine. "Every branch in me" means the faculties of mind, and the "fruit" is the thought.

The law is that an unused faculty atrophies and withers away. This is true of everything in existence. Inertia and nonuse soon bring stagnation, corruption, death, and disintegration. We have accepted this so universally as a fact of nature that its original character as an intelligent force has been overlooked. All the teaching of the Scriptures is that a failure to use a talent or faculty meets with a reprimand from the Father-Mind. The over-careful servant who buried his talent had it taken away from him and given to the one who had increased his the most. This also has been observed in its negative aspect--a faculty overused draws its vitality from the others and eventually depletes them seriously, unless they are developed by balanced exercise. This is a law of our being, and we should regard it as an intelligent principle instead of a blind force, as we usually do.

3 Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,

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