Editorial December 18, 1902 Issue

The Fruitage of Expectancy

IN our Master's wonderful object-lesson, which for nineteen centuries has been directing men back to the simplicity of childhood if they would find the gateway to heaven, the child has, by common interpretation, come to mean the consciousness of innocence, purity, and obedience. We are the more ready to follow his pathway, because as we journey, we know we tread on holy ground. After our weary wanderings, we gladly turn back to the freshness and fairness of our childhood morning.

There is another characteristic of childhood, however, not so commonly recognized, perhaps, but equally worthy of remembrance and emulation. It is the confident expectancy of immediate, practical results. Childhood has neither power nor inclination to satisfy itself with the dry bones of speculation and theory. It demands and anticipates prompt demonstration. When the truth of Christian Science is presented, it never doubts, never questions, it simply expects the results named. This trustful expectancy brings its reward.

The child's prayer carries its answer in its confidence. When he prays for food, no matter how unfruitful the wilderness, he spreads his table and prepares for a feast. His trust is unwavering, unquestioning, spontaneous, reliant. It is intuitive with the little ones, but we who have reasoned ourselves away from the sweet and simple consciousness of universal harmony must win it back again. Reason and demonstration will help us on the way, and the Love which glows in childhood's intuitive expectancy will find its perfect freedom again in us, as, one by one, we are liberated from the trammels of human sense. S.

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