Article January 28, 1911 Issue

"REVEALED ... UNTO BABES"

ADELA LE PAGE.

The lessons we learn from the children are often such as never to be forgotten, and frequently prove the turning-point in our decisions, uncovering in the consciousness of those years older in material wisdom, lurking errors and fears which would hinder demonstration. As the mother of two little boys who have never known any other religious teaching than Christian Science. I am deeply grateful for many a lesson learned from their childish lips.

At the age of three and a half years one child was smitten down with what seemed an alarming attack of illness. I called in a doctor, in accordance with the law of the land, to diagnose the case. He pronounced the trouble to be measles, and left certain directions to be followed, which, however, I ignored. All that night the child was delirious and the fever ran very high. I continually read Science and Health to quiet the fear which strove to assert itself, for I had been interested in Christian Science only a few months and hardly knew how to handle the case. Toward morning, however, he slept peacefully, and to my surprise awoke with no sign of rash or fever, and in the gayest spirits, hungry for his breakfast and ready to get up. While I was attending to his needs, he said to me: "Mother, dear, I talked to dear God last night all by myself." "Did you, darling?" I replied; "and what did you say?" "I told Him I knew He did not put me there." What wonder that the child was perfectly well, when such simple faith in God's loving care and goodness had been called up to defeat the lie that had attempted to fasten disease upon him!

At another time one of them was in great suffering, and again, in compliance with law, it seemed necessary to have a doctor's diagnosis, so I took the child to a neighboring physician, who gave a very serious verdict. Shortly after, a bottle arrived at my house, with imperative directions that frequent external applications be made. Tossed for a few moments by my mother-fear, between doubt as to how far I was bound to obey civil law and a desire to hold strictly to the truth I loved so dearly, I handled the bottle meditatively, when a small voice from the pillow said, "What are you going to do with that, mother?" I replied that the doctor had ordered me to use it for him, but that I did not want to do so. All hesitation was flung to the winds, however, when his trustful eyes looked straight into mine, and a voice full of sweet conviction said, "What's the good of putting that stuff on a thought, mother?" What, indeed! Needless to say that mother was rebuked, the bottle was thrown away with its contents, and a lesson learned from the pure faith and understanding of a little child. Well was it said by the psalmist, "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength."

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