THE PROMISE TO THE CHILDREN

Annie M. Knott

On the day of Pentecost, that great awakening to the spiritual facts of being, Peter gave a long address to the people who from all parts of the world were present in Jerusalem, and he quoted the psalmist's words: "Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance." Peter also said, "The promise is unto you, and to your children." It was not long before this that the great Teacher himself had made special provision for the children in his blessed ministry, when he said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God." Again, we read that when he healed the sick, the blind, and the lame in the temple, the children shouted his praises, while the priests "were sore displeased."

At the present time as never before, thought is turned to the children with a view to bettering the conditions under which they shall grow up. It is generally admitted that the moral tone of our cities is unwholesome for childhood, but no one can show a good reason why this should be so. If the moral tone in the home is what it should be, the child must be safe wherever he goes, all the seeming forces of evil must disappear before his pure thought; but here we may well recall the passage in Hebrews, "Thou madest him a little lower than the angels,... But now we see not yet all things put under him."

Of old the Israelites were bidden to teach their children diligently and constantly the laws of God, as the only means by which health, happiness, and prosperity could be secured. Where this was done the results were wonderful, as in the case of Joseph, of David, of Daniel and his companions in Babylon, and in many other instances. This training can and should begin with the earliest hours of a child's life; even before his lips can frame the simplest words he may begin to feel the power of Love and Truth and be taught to choose good and not evil at every step of the way. To make this training count for the utmost, the glorious realities of spiritual being must ever be kept before the thought, that of parent and child alike. The smallest child can reflect enough of divine Truth to be healed thereby when material means are of no avail, and the proofs of this fact are daily increasing wherever Christian Science is known.

All great reformers who strive to do much for children do it because they have at least a glimpse of divine possibilities for the child, and the more they know of man's true possibilities the better for all concerned. Wordsworth says,—

The youth, who daily farther from the east
Must travel, still is nature's priest,
And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended.

But we cannot agree with him when he says,—

At length the man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.

No! "the vision splendid" is the vision of the Christ, and it is for every day and for all the years. It is the "gift" of which Peter spoke, and it is being realized in its fulness through the ministry of Christian Science. It makes the worn and weary mortal "become" a child, even as Jesus said, and it prepares the child to play on the serpent's den, as the ancient prophet foretold, fearing no harm nor finding any when "the earth shall be full of knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Our revered Leader says (Science and Health, p. 62) that children "should become men and women only through growth in the understanding of man's higher nature." Then every good thing promised in the Scriptures will crown their lives.

Annie M. Knott.

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NOT A SPARROW FALLETH

March 12, 1910

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