Article July 1, 1905 Issue

Bringing the Children to Christ

L. M.

The sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.—Psalm 84:3.

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.

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