In the “Watches, Prayers, and Arguments” section of Collectanea, Mrs. Eddy says, “The Word of God spoken into consciousness is the seed bearing fruit after its kind.”
To preserve something is to keep it fresh. God keeps me, preserves me, in direct proportion to the degree I have preserved (kept fresh) Christ’s sayings in my heart and mind.
“If a man keep my sayings, he shall never see death” (John 8:51) is a conditional promise of preservation.
“If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
“My words are Spirit and they are life” (John 6:63). Life never grows stale, but is always fresh; never decays, but is its own preserver.
Keeping Christ’s sayings means not only to pay attention to them, but also to observe them, to carry them out. “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21). Doing Christ’s sayings, not simply hearing them.
“Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). Abiding with God is not an on/off relationship of stolen visits, but staying, remaining in the service of God. Devotion.
As I keep Christ’s words, seize upon them, hold them — “nearer than hands and feet” — so that they abide in me, retaining them just as good ground allows a seed sown in it to abide in it long enough to germinate (that is, to manifest the destiny of that seed), my life will bear fruit.
“Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). Thus did the Virgin Mary bring forth the Christ-child by hiding, treasuring, keeping the word of promise always fresh — in her heart.