It comes to me that perhaps some mother, struggling as I was to bring up the children wisely, may be helped by some little experiences which I have had. Soon after I began to apprehend what is meant by the unfolding of truth,—to see that it must be proven, step by step, in our daily lives, it came to me clearly, that in order to help the children to a greater measure of freedom I must know for them the fact of the one perfect Father-Mother God. They had been left without an earthly father when they were respectively six, four, and two years old. My memory of their father was calm and sweet, and I often pointed out to friends how much each of the children resembled him, and how each child was like him in different ways. I was willing to separate them in thought from all sense of having a human mother, for I had never been especially satisfied with my own temperament, perhaps because it had given me too much trouble. The thought, however, of spearating them from all sense of human parentage brought to me a downright rebellious sense—and such half-way work as I then did brought half-way results. No human character is perfect, nor anything like it, and as I saw one child reflecting abnormal fear; another developing a tendency to take cold easily; the third showing loss of control over inanimate things which went wrong; and when I heard relatives and friends (despite the study little bodies, healthful color, and happy faces) prophesying for all three the development, some time, of the dread disease which the father had manifested, I saw clearly that it was time I should wake up and see how I was lending myself to the error of personality rather than obeying Principle. I saw that it was time I got to work, time to know for the children the absolute truth.

I turned to the Glossary of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and it was indeed a Key to me. I had never cared to read the Bible before I read our text-book, but this was all changed after I had entered upon its study. On this occasion I read carefully the definition of "children." as given on page 582, and I then knew that the Father-Mother of all the children is Spirit, God. I also realized, as never before, the meaning of the ninety-first Psalm. There have been few days since, in which I have not been able in thought to separate the children entirely from the belief of life in matter.

The sayings of Christ Jesus came home to my thought as never before: "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you. That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." "Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?" Many blessings have come to the children in the making of this demonstration, and even more to me. The meaning of God as Father-Mother is clearer and He seems nearer; the meaning of man as "male and female" is nearer my comprehension than ever before, and I know better the import of the promise in Revelation, "There shall be no more curse: ... And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads." Best of all, I am ready to accept the teaching of our beloved Leader, respecting God's creation, which is given on page 69 of Science and Health.

Another lesson I learned more recently and it taught me to trust God, good, more. When the youngest of my three children came to know of Christian Science he was only four years old. His thought of it was very clear, and many of his little talks to me were very wonderful and beautiful to my halting, slower thought. The time came for him to enter our public school, and although it was second to none in the West, yet there were very few children of Christian Scientists and no teachers who had accepted our beloved faith. I listened to the suggestion of error, though I did not realize it at the time, that he would probably lose, in some measure, his clear thought by contact with so much mortal belief and talk, and that all the sweet, wonderful reasonings would be forgotten; the same old lie of the serpent—evil mightier than good. Many have been my rebukes and I have humbly accepted them all. He came into my study one day and stood looking intently at a familiar and dearly-loved picture on my wall. It was one popularly known as "The Rock of Ages." He looked up earnestly at the woman clinging to the cross, and said, "Who is the lady, mother?" I smiled and answered, "I do not know, dear; I used to think it was I!" He looked at it again and then at me, and thoughtfully said, "She can hold on without getting tired 'cause it's the Rock of Love. It isn't strength [meaning, I suppose, physical strength] that makes her hold on, it is how much she loves the Rock." Could there have been a truer explanation of the subject? It was one of my lessons. One morning I sent him into another room to get for me "No and Yes" by our Leader. He returned with the book and said, "What a funny name, mother, 'No and Yes;' I s'pose it's 'No' to error, and 'Yes' to God!"

Surely we mothers can never afford to believe that there is a power called evil, and that it can blot out or overmaster good—even though our present ability to reflect good may seem only as a grain of mustard-seed. It is only as we reveal to our children the Mother-love of God that in years to come they will rise up and call us "blessed."

In Rotherham's translation of the New Testament, Mark, 10 : 14 reads, "Permit the children to be coming unto me,—be not hindering them." Let us rather help them in the only true way,—God's way. Let us daily learn to be grateful to the dear Leader who has so lovingly, wisely, and patiently led us into the promised land of Christian Science. This mother-heart goes out to her in gratitude for the help received in bringing up the children.