Take a boy of nine, wayward and disturbed, separate him from his family, send him to a correctional institution —and then to another and another. Eleven interminable years pass. No member of the family ever visits him. A boy grows up to manhood, and the world scarcely notices.
Now, at twenty, he finds his way to a Christian Science service at an Indiana prison, then forfeits a recreational period to seek out the Christian Science Field Worker. (He could have gone to a movie instead.) He hears that God is Father-Mother. "You know God loves you," the Field Worker says. The youth answers, "I don't know; I hope so."
At the service on Sunday he considers the Lesson-Sermon on Love from the Christian Science Quarterly, and something about it strikes him deep. The forsaken feelings loose their chains a bit. Afterward he rushes to the Reader and explains, "I said I hoped that God is Love and Father-Mother—but now I know it!"
