My thought has been full of a beautiful demonstration that I had a few months after I had begun to understand the Truth as taught by our Leader, through which I gained a better understanding of God's children. At the request of his parents I treated a little fellow three and a half years old. Mortal thought of him was very unlovely, but Truth and Love were equal to the task and wiped out the image of error or illusion.
The child was healed in a few treatments, of catarrh and several other troubles which from his birth had remained untouched by materia medica, and the change in his disposition called forth many remarks.
We hardly ever heard his voice, he rarely answered when spoken to, and the tiny face was disfigured by a constant scowl. He would run and kick us without any provocation, and pinch or scratch our faces if we took him in our arms. Sometimes he would slip out of sight and we would find him hidden under a bed, where he would remain until he wanted to go home. So, too, he refused to eat before us and would crawl under the table, refusing to come out, and we sometimes ignored this unusual behavior and gave him his plate under the table. His many strange ways made him seem almost like a little wild animal.
One day he came into the house, lifted up his little arms to be taken up, and then pressed his face to my daughter's and said, "I love you," nothing else. Then he approached me in the same way, and after that he would often love us, and would begin to talk if he found us alone. We used to talk about God. I taught him the Mother's prayer for the little children, and he grew to be kind and obliging.
Then came the time when the father became antagonistic to Christian Science, and would not allow the child to come to our house at all. His parents' work obliged them to leave the children very much alone and our little friend got many whippings for running away to us. The episode I write of happened at this period, when the child was four years old. One afternoon we had visitors and my daughter said she could hear some one sobbing, but as we supposed we were alone with our friends no attention was given the noise until at last she followed the sound to the kitchen. There she found our little friend curled up in the empty wood box, sobbing as silently as he could. He had come to us in trouble, and finding company had hidden away until their departure. My daughter called me out and laid the child in my arms, and what a spectacle he was! In his play he had gotten soiled with dust and heat; his clothes, two or three sizes too large, were torn, and his face was covered with blood which flowed freely, so that I could not see where the hurt was. I carried him to my room, my daughter following. I was so touched at the sight of this poor child's faith and patience as he choked back his sobs that a floodtide of love came to me and seemed to fill my whole being. My tears fell on the little face and I kept saying to him as I carried him upstairs, "You are God's little lamb; you are God's little lamb." On reaching my bedroom my daughter brought a towel and water to bathe him, and then he sat up quickly and in his baby voice said, "I don't want water, I just want to be treated." I said, "You want to be a clean boy, don't you?" and then he allowed us to bathe the blood and dirt off his face, and we found over the left eye a deep swollen gash about an inch and a half long, but the blood had stopped entirely when we reached my room. The child stretched his little body out at full length on my lap, with a great sigh of contentment, and the thought that came to me was, he wants Truth, and he has the infinite ever-present Love and Life. With that angel to lead, I caught a glimpse of the Promised Land. There was no sobbing, bleeding baby there, love was all; I had no fear, God was the only presence and power, and I can never forget the benediction that was poured upon me. When he quite suddenly sprang from my lap saying, "I want something to eat, please." mortal thought suggested I must begin to treat him. but I let him go the next moment, for I knew God had healed him. The edges of the cut had united and the swelling was entirely gone. After a little while he seemed to express a fear of his father's knowing of his visit, but I could see everything was all right.
A few days after I asked him what had caused the hurt, and he said a block of wood had been thrown by another child and struck him, and he came of his own will to be treated. He told me when he had some aches and pains he could treat himself, and they would go away. I wanted to know the thought that had helped him," and asked him what he said to error; his answer was, "I just say. God is King in Heaven; and I don't have the earache any more." Surely "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength."
I am grateful for our Journal and Sentinel. They are messages of Love always waited for and welcomed by our family.— Oakland. Cal.
