Article December 4, 1909 Issue

HUMAN DISCIPLINE VS. DIVINE

PEARL BEMIS PERSONS

In my experience as a mother, even before coming into Christian Science, I always felt, after one of the rare occasions when I seemed driven to the use of any sort of corporal punishment for the little ones, that I had failed, even though obedience had been attained. I felt that if I had been wise enough and patient enough, I would have been able to accomplish the desired result without even the mild chastisement which was all I could ever bring myself to administer. I was sure that it was my lack of wisdom which seemed to make this form of discipline necessary; and yet I used to believe that an all-wise, all-powerful Father scourged His children into obedience to His laws with the many-corded whip of physical suffering!

If the belief that God uses sickness as a means of grace does not mean that omniscience can find no better way than corporal punishment for some of His erring children, what does it mean? Shall the teacher in the public schools and the student of child culture in the home be more just than God? The psalmist prayed, "Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins"! May we be forgiven for having dared to think that the infinite Mind rules the universe in ways which we have outgrown.

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