"LITTLE CHILDREN."

CHRISTINE H. BEALS.

Jesus said, "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me." In the light that has come to the parents of this generation through Christian Science, this saying of the Master's is a very significant one. This "me" of which the Saviour speaks is the Spirit of truth, giving the right understanding, the right knowing about God and His universe and His children. Jesus had an insight into life, a keenness of perception which came from an ever-present consciousness of man's oneness with the Father; and this keenness of vision enabled him to see in the child potentialities which very likely had escaped the parents and educators of his day. What a wonderful meaning his words and actions held for all generations and for all time, when he placed a child in the midst of the people and said, "Except ye ... become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven"! He knew that the child of God's creating is intrinsically good, that it is a spiritual idea born of Truth and Love; and that even to human sense, the child in its infancy, before the false claims of mortality assail it, reflects more of the things that pertain to the kingdom than in later years.

We have no slightest word or hint that the thought ever came to Christ Jesus, this representative of compassion and love, that there might be inherited traits in the child which would later in life mar its happiness or produce discord or inharmony in its being; or that he doubted the absolute freedom from sin which every child should express. He knew that sin, with its attendant chain of evils, comes only with the delusions and false beliefs about God and man, and so he said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me." That is, permit, or lead, the children in their tender years of purity and truth to know the facts of life, not its falsity; teach them the truth of being, which unfolds life and love, not the error of sin and death.

We have the clear teaching of Jesus that this instruction should being very early in the child's earthly career, and Mrs. Eddy tells us that "if Christian Scientists educate their own offspring spiritually, they can educate others spiritually and not conflict with the scientific sense of God's creation" (Science and Health, p. 69). To educate the child spiritually should, then, be the first effort, the supreme aim of every Christian Science parent. And it should be thoroughly understood that to educate a child does not mean to give him a superficial knowledge, a vague indefinite understanding about a thing, but that it means rather to instil in him the actual demonstrable facts. The demonstrable facts about health will save the child from disease, the fact of evil's unreality will save him from sin, the right understanding of Love will save him from suffering, want, and woe.

We know that many parents have made sacrifices, and denied themselves much in a material way, in order to provide a material education for their offspring, that they might start them in a way of usefulness and honor; and that many times failure and disappointment have resulted. This failure in the rearing of sons and daughters has been laid at the door of various things, and many theories in regard to the training of children have been advanced. The belief in inherited tendencies has, perhaps, been resorted to as an excuse or explanation of failure more often than any other theory. And yet what is this belief in inherited evil, other than a denial of God's power and a repudiation of His love? Had the parent understood the allness of God and the efficacy of divine Love, and instructed the child from its infancy in the truth of being, his teaching could not have failed of its purpose.

All children are to a greater or less degree receptive, open to impressions. This receptivity makes it possible for the parent to teach the child in such a manner that evil cannot assail him and sin cannot tempt him. Children are naturally happy; it is only when sin and delusion begin to creep in that spontaneous happiness and the pure joy of life are dimmed. A child properly trained will know better—not merely theoretically, but in the actuality of his existence he will know better—than to believe that wrong-doing can bring happiness, or that evil in word or deed or thought can ever bring him good. The child who is taught the truth about God and man and the universe will have no disposition to worship at the false shrine of matter; when he knows the protecting power of Love and the beauty of purity he will have no desire to take unto himself grosser things, and with the unfolding of the child will come the unfolding of godliness.

"Of such is the kingdom of heaven," said the Master. To the child belong the qualities of heaven,—harmony, love, peace, purity, truth, and life. It is the gracious and high privilege of the parent so to teach and train his offspring that the passing years of human experience will not rob the child of the gifts and benefits which God, the loving Father, has bestowed upon him.

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