What a volume of testimony for Christian Science might be gathered from the children of Scientists. Their experiences in proving Truth shed a sweet fragrance upon the atmosphere of thought.
Where Christian Science finds its way into a family, it converts the nursery into a field of instruction more interesting than a kindergarten,—more practical than a common school. None are too young to learn, and none too old. Truth is the Teacher; the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, the text-books. The parents and guardians become husbandmen, who sow and reap for the Master of the Vineyard.
Many a little one knows "The Book," holds it lovingly, recognizing the Love-message and names it "good," before the mechanical process of acquiring the words has been deemed possible. The larger girl teaches herself to read and count from its pages, so making the spiritual cover the intellectual. This has been done with Mind alone for the Teacher. As she listens to others reading, her desire "to do likewise" catches the sound which belongs to the word the eye sees, and Mind sees thought always. Now she finds herself able to read by the light of Truth—a privilege children have not had heretofore. Others lisp the "Scientific Statement" for an evening prayer with their first utterances, and receive with it the clear distinction between the real and unreal which will influence all their thinking. Not all learning comes through schools, for one mamma testifies that her four-year-old learns sentences with long words quite as readily as short ones, evidently seeing the thought back of the word; while another gladly bears witness that it is a pleasure to teach the children Science, they learn so easily, and love it so. Memory supplies numberless instances of the receptiveness of youth to spiritual Truth, which illustrates how the "leaven of the Woman'' hidden in human innocence and purity raises thought into better expression. The effect of Science teaching appears decidedly in the babes, making their sweetness of temper constant, and imparting through them the sense that "God is Love." The outside world does not understand this. In one case, where the mother has learned to govern by Love rather than fear, this was so pronounced that one who knows nothing of Science said, "I never before saw a baby who was good all the time." "Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." Blessed witnesses for the harmony Christian Science brings to earth.
