Article May 16, 1914 Issue

Looking Upward

LULA ARMSTRONG

The wisdom of pressing onward, with no backward look at evil, is an unquestionable advantage to the Christian Scientist. Not long ago I said to a Scientist, "I am searching myself to find the cause of this discord." She replied, "Suppose now you search to find your true being in God's image, or how good you are as God's reflection." This dispelled a sense of self-condemnation and I felt a great measure of freedom. I would like to add that this experience made me willing to look squarely into the face of a faulty past and led me to know that God was holding my hand all the way, that no mistake had ever had any power but to destroy itself, and that there was much good for which to be grateful.

Having a natural fondness for children, and there being a necessity for some effort to support myself, I became a teacher. I tried to make every pupil feel that I was a friend and interested in every detail of his life, for I loved a child the moment he entered my schoolroom. I recall, too, that the pupils seemed to know that I loved them all alike. This was evidently the prompting of that divine Love which made Jesus the teacher he was and Mrs. Eddy the leader she was. When we remember Jesus' application of the truth he taught to every detail of human life, with his eye ever fixed on the Principle of being above it all, can we doubt his love? The teacher under whom I studied Christian Science, told me that when she first went into Mrs. Eddy's presence she felt that she was with the best friend she ever had. After coming into the light of this truth, and learning better what Love is, and how to reflect it, I found much joy.

A little girl in my school said very seriously, "My mother says she could never learn the multiplication table, so you need not try to get me to learn it, for I can't." Through my understanding of the one Mind I was able to refute this lie of limitation, and the pupil soon became as ready and active in her use of the tables as any one in school. In further pondering my work, before I came into Christian Science, I see where I was enabled under Love's guidance to feel a great sense of compassion for the so-called stupid child, and to work patiently in helping him up to a normal standard. I remember once, while laboriously yet lovingly trying to get two "dull" boys to understand a lesson, using my own time out of school hours, an older pupil said, "Don't work with those boys, for they cannot learn, and the teacher in the other school just let them go and did not bother with them." I continued this faithful labor, however, with little encouragement; but after getting an understanding of Christian Science fine results followed, with less labor and greater joy.

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