Many years ago I stood by the bedside of a little son of four years of age. He had just finished his usual evening prayer. Looking up to me he said, "Mother, who is God?" Momentous question! One to which I could then give no satisfactory answer! I did not know God. He was seemingly "afar off" and unknowable. I spoke of Him as a loving Father, and the little one seemed satisfied. But I realized how vague was my concept of Deity, how unprepared I was to answer the child's simple question.
Some months later the boy passed on, following a year's illness. Arms were empty; heart was empty, because thought was empty—void of the truth about God. Then came another query, What is Life? for the only life of which I seemed conscious was one that appeared to come and go without the volition of the one most interested. I looked in many directions for the Comforter, and finally wandered into a Christian Science meeting in my neighborhood. It was my first experience with a testimony meeting. I was impressed with what I heard, and decided to get the textbook referred to, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, from our local library.
A quarter of a century has passed since that first meeting, and few are the services which have been missed. I became at once a student of our textbook; and before a year had passed, began to get a glimpse of God, who is Truth. Later on I realized that I had found an answer to both the above questions; for it was revealed to me that "the Christian Science God is universal, eternal, divine Love, which changeth not and causeth no evil, disease, nor death," as we read on page 140 of Science and Health. I also learned in Christian Science that God is Life; and then it was seen that this real Life could not cease since God is Life. This proved to be the needed Comforter. I am indeed grateful for this right concept of God, and for the understanding of the way to reach Him in prayer, gained from the further study of our textbook. The thought that turns in confidence to God does receive from God. He gives; it is our part to know that we do receive because He gives. This truth has been demonstrated to me in various ways, and I shall refer to two of them.
