Shortly after I had studied Christian Science, and had become able to give my children a little benefit of the new and wonderful light revealed to me, I overheard them talking to some others who were wondering who and what God was. One or two said He was a "great, big man." My little girl said she thought He was Love; because a "great big man" could not be everywhere at the same time—and besides, she did not think as they did that He had "three heads."
Another of my little girls, aged seven, was asked one day, while unconsciously standing near an open window, if she wasn't afraid of taking cold. Her reply was: "Not a bit afraid, 'specially if I'm keeping the draft off of you!" "Why, 'specially if you are keeping it off me?" was the query. "Because you're afraid, and I'm protecting you, and God'll take good care of me for doing that, never fear!"
Another little daughter, aged ten, received a folding blackboard desk for a Christmas present. Christmas eve, when I arranged the gifts, I found the table would not hold all; so placed the blackboard on the floor with the shaded chalks in a box beside. Early in the morning the children were awake, and I could hear exclamations of delight over every newly discovered gift. I soon went in, and the first thing that met my eyes was the blackboard placed upon the table upright. On it was drawn, in perfect outline and proportion, a beautiful white cross standing upon some rocks. Over the top of the cross was suspended a crown. At each end of the cross-bar the hands were drawn, with nail-prints in the palms; but instead of the human form of Jesus, were the letters LOVE, so arranged as to extend from the hands to the foot of the cross. From each letter fell drops of blood, in red chalk. Beneath, great waves were seething, almost ready to engulf the rocks. Overhead was a symmetrical five-pointed star, while in the right-hand upper corner a new moon was just appearing. The whole was very effective, and to me indicative of the childish working of a Spiritual thought.
A lady in explaining Christian Science to a little patient of hers, one day said: "It's a naughty lie that tells you you are sick; and you won't believe a lie, will you? Really you are harmonious and healthy,—God's perfect idea! His child,—and His children cannot he sick. Now you must never believe this lie, and you never will be sick. You must only believe the Good, for only the Good is true."
A few days after, the little girl was talking to her mamma about Christian Science. "Why, mamma," she said, "the naughty lie told me I had a headache; but I said, I don't believe a lie. I know I haven't got a headache because I'm God's child, and His children don't have headaches; so it went right away." Her mamma told this to the Scientist's husband who, next time he saw the little one, to try her and see what she would say, said: "Well, Mattie, I heard you were sick the other day. Is that so?" Looking up at him in deprecation of such a thought, and manifesting the greatest surprise, the little one made answer, emphatically, "Me sick? No, indeed!" "Oh, I beg your pardon," said the gentleman, "I thought I heard someone say you were." "Well, that was a lie," came the firm, steady reply. "You shouldn't believe a lie."
I know of no one who could deliver, in the spirit of Love, a more pungent rebuke than did this unconscious child. It looks as if Isaiah's prophecy were verified in this hour; and we must look to the child to teach and lead us. (Isaiah xi. 6.)
