For an adult grown weary with the constant struggle and friction of human daily living, there lies a blessed benediction in Mrs. Eddy's closing words of her First Address in The Mother Church, given May 26, 1895 (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 110), "Beloved children, the world has need of you,—and more as children than as men and women: it needs your innocence, unselfishness, faithful affection, uncontaminated lives."
"Children . . . uncontaminated lives"! Such is the remedy for all our adult fuss and bother, our friction and strife. Childlike qualities of character can be obtained and retained only through watchful prayer, through acknowledging our God given ability to dissolve from within ourselves every hint of that which would contaminate—all pride, arrogance, and self-will. Working thus, conscientiously, we find that human contacts no longer harass us. Upon this quiet individual work rests the salvation of the world—the only way of escape from tyranny and domination.
We learn to be more humble through human experiences which are sometimes happy, sometimes bitter. We see how humility becomes a steppingstone into heaven—out of discord, strife, and hate into peace, love, and accomplishment. The term "humility," therefore, needs no definition. Indeed, we recognize and love the quality as we see it manifested in others, revealing a selflessness of purpose, thought, and effort with no taint of arrogance.
