Article January 20, 1906 Issue

What the Truth Will Do

IDA G. STEWART.

As I read our Leader's words in the Sentinel of January 6, relative to Christmas for the children, in which she gives her wise admonition that we do not teach our children the old Santa Claus traditions, I am reminded of the healing of a little child which it was my privilege to witness, and which may be of interest to others.

It was nearing the Christmas holidays some five or six years ago, when I was hastily summoned to see a sick child. Upon reaching the home I found a little girl, perhaps six years of age. tossing on her pillow in delirium. The family were too frightened to tell me anything of the particulars of the case further than that she had been in this distressing condition for twenty-four hours.

I seated myself at the bedside, and as I listened to the incoherent talk of the little sufferer I perceived that she was believing in Santa Claus, was fearing and dreading him; that the strife, envy, and anxiety of Christmas gifts, were poisoning the child's thought, were polluting the sweetness and in-nocency which were hers by divine right. Although she was delirious, I explained to her audibly that Santa Claus and the wonderful reindeer, with their mysterious ability to intrude themselves upon her by descending the chimney, were myths; that it was divine Love reflected in love that brought her the gifts at Christmas time, and that her parents and friends were the avenues through which she received them. I also told her that we celebrate the twenty-fifth of December in commemoration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, "that Godlike and glorified man" (Science and Health, p. 54); that Christmas signifies the birth of the true idea of God—the Christ—in human consciousness; that this dear Christ is God's gift to the world, by means of which we may understand the Father and be free from all evil and strife. By the time I had reached this point the child was lying quietly on her pillow, regarding me, her eyes opened wide with joyous wonder, and the fever and the delirium had gone.

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