One day, after I had been studying Christian Science for about a year, one of our young sons was taken ill suddenly. The whole family was at home at the time, and we were just ready to sit down to lunch. He was only about two years old, and could not tell us what was hurting him; but we could tell he had acute pains in his stomach.
I tried to pray silently, declaring the omnipotence and omnipresence of God. But I soon saw that I needed to be alone with the child; so I took him in my arms and went into a bedroom and closed the door, taking the Christian Science Hymnal with me.
I laid the child upon a bed and took up the Hymnal. It opened to the hymn which begins, "O little town of Bethlehem" (No. 222). The thoughts that came to me were these: "Oh, you don't want to sing that hymn; it is a Christmas hymn. No one sings Christmas hymns in July!" However, I began to sing it, trying to calm my fears and turn my thought to God, although the child was crying louder than ever. Before I had finished singing, my thought was illumined, and I had learned something of the true meaning of Christmas. The last verse of the hymn reads,
