Part 35 (1/2)
236:21 Children should obey their parents; insubordination is an evil, blighting the buddings of self-government.
Parents should teach their children at the 236:24 earliest possible period the truths of health and holiness. Children are more tractable than adults, and learn more readily to love the simple verities that will 236:27 make them happy and good.
Jesus loved little children because of their freedom from wrong and their receptiveness of right. While 236:30 age is halting between two opinions or battling with false beliefs, youth makes easy and rapid strides towards Truth.
237:1 A little girl, who had occasionally listened to my ex- planations, badly wounded her finger. She seemed not 237:3 to notice it. On being questioned about it she answered ingenuously, ”There is no sensation in matter.” Bound- ing off with laughing eyes, she presently added, ”Mamma, 237:6 my finger is not a bit sore.”
Soil and seed
It might have been months or years before her parents would have laid aside their drugs, or reached the mental 237:9 height their little daughter so naturally at- tained. The more stubborn beliefs and theo- ries of parents often choke the good seed in the minds of 237:12 themselves and their offspring. Superst.i.tion, like ”the fowls of the air,” s.n.a.t.c.hes away the good seed before it has sprouted.
Teaching children
237:15 Children should be taught the Truth-cure, Christian Science, among their first lessons, and kept from discuss- ing or entertaining theories or thoughts about 237:18 sickness. To prevent the experience of error and its sufferings, keep out of the minds of your children either sinful or diseased thoughts. The latter should 237:21 be excluded on the same principle as the former. This makes Christian Science early available.
Deluded invalids
Some invalids are unwilling to know the facts or to 237:24 hear about the fallacy of matter and its supposed laws.
They devote themselves a little longer to their material G.o.ds, cling to a belief in the life and 237:27 intelligence of matter, and expect this error to do more for them than they are willing to admit the only living and true G.o.d can do. Impatient at your explanation, unwill- 237:30 ing to investigate the Science of Mind which would rid them of their complaints, they hug false beliefs and suffer the delusive consequences.
Patient waiting
238:1 Motives and acts are not rightly valued before they are understood. It is well to wait till those whom you would 238:3 benefit are ready for the blessing, for Science is working changes in personal character as well as in the material universe.
238:6 To obey the Scriptural command, ”Come out from among them, and be ye separate,” is to incur society's frown; but this frown, more than flatteries, enables one 238:9 to be Christian. Losing her crucifix, the Roman Catholic girl said, ”I have nothing left but Christ.” ”If G.o.d be for us, who can be against us?”
Unimproved opportunities
238:12 To fall away from Truth in times of persecution, shows that we never understood Truth. From out the bridal chamber of wisdom there will come the warn- 238:15 ing, ”I know you not.” Unimproved op- portunities will rebuke us when we attempt to claim the benefits of an experience we have not made our own, try 238:18 to reap the harvest we have not sown, and wish to enter unlawfully into the labors of others. Truth often remains unsought, until we seek this remedy for human woe be- 238:21 cause we suffer severely from error.
Attempts to conciliate society and so gain dominion over mankind, arise from worldly weakness. He who leaves 238:24 all for Christ forsakes popularity and gains Christianity.
Society and intolerance
Society is a foolish juror, listening only to one side of the case. Justice often comes too late to secure a verdict.
238:27 People with mental work before them have no time for gossip about false law or testimony.
To reconstruct timid justice and place the fact above the 238:30 falsehood, is the work of time.
The cross is the central emblem of history. It is the lodestar in the demonstration of Christian healing, - the 239:1 demonstration by which sin and sickness are destroyed.
The sects, which endured the lash of their predecessors, 239:3 in their turn lay it upon those who are in advance of creeds.
Right views of humanity
Take away wealth, fame, and social organizations, 239:6 which weigh not one jot in the balance of G.o.d, and we get clearer views of Principle. Break up cliques, level wealth with honesty, let worth 239:9 be judged according to wisdom, and we get better views of humanity.
The wicked man is not the ruler of his upright 239:12 neighbor. Let it be understood that success in error is defeat in Truth. The watchword of Christian Science is Scriptural: ”Let the wicked forsake his way, and the 239:15 unrighteous man his thoughts.”
Standpoint revealed
To ascertain our progress, we must learn where our affections are placed and whom we acknowledge and 239:18 obey as G.o.d. If divine Love is becoming nearer, dearer, and more real to us, matter is then submitting to Spirit. The objects we pursue and 239:21 the spirit we manifest reveal our standpoint, and show what we are winning.