Seed and Fruit…

To cite a sentence from Emerson: “Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed;…” This suggests another sentence concerning cause and consequence which says, “There is a law, irrevocably decreed…upon which all blessings are predicated⎯And when we obtain any blessing…from God it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.”

Sometimes slowly, sometimes swiftly, but always surely there is evidence of cause and consequence. The fruit is inseparable from the seed⎯which is its own assurance that nothing earned will ever be unfairly forfeited, that there will be justice in all we should or shouldn’t do, in all we do or don’t do, in every ultimate accounting.

This subject of seed and fruit has another side: the part thought plays in all utterance, in all action. To think of something unworthy may not be as wrong as to do something unworthy, but the thought does precede the deed, and more earnestly we should be careful what we contemplate and should safeguard every intent for the deed, the act, is somewhat shaped long before the outward evidence, and what has not been held in the heart or in the mind, is less less likely to be done as a physical fact.

On the positive side there is this to say: Worthy, clean, honest thinking is infinitely more likely to lead to clean and honest action. In one sense, good intentions have been much maligned. There is a place, it is said, that is paved with them. But good intentions are better than bad ones, even when we fail to follow them through. Better to have good ones neglected than bad ones accomplished!

And now for those who are young, for those who may look to life far to the future, there is this certainty of assurance: the willingness to study, to learn, to work, to keep clean in thought, in act, in utterance, the willingness to prepare and to be true to sound principles and purposes, the willingness to keep the commandments, brings peace and competence and quietness of conscience.

And as to the thoughts we think: Whatever leads to wrong must in itself be wrong. “The fruit is already in the seed”; the consequence is already in the cause, the inner intent comes to outward evidence. We cannot separate a person from what he thinks, from what he ahs in his heart. “When we obtain any blessing…it is by obedience to that…[principle] upon which it is predicated….” The “seed and fruit, cannot be severed.”