Editorial May 5, 1917 Issue

Children and Truth

Annie M. Knott

St. John's second epistle is very remarkable in that its chief appeal is made in the name of truth, and we have been accustomed to think of him as the great apostle of love. As we look into this message more deeply, however, we discover that without truth there can be no real sense of love; and without love, truth would be practically unknown. While this epistle is addressed to "the elect lady and her children," it vitally concerns all of us, and should be earnestly pondered, not only by parents whose chilren are being instructed in Christian Science, but by the Sunday school teachers whose duty it is to assist in laying those spiritual foundations which bespeak strong and beautiful characters.

Here it may be said that from the Christian Science viewpoint the truth can never be known or demonstrated in the Christ-way until spiritual reality is apprehended and in some measure demonstrated. Even in their school work children have to learn that the physical senses do not report the truth, and that the evidence presented through these sense needs to be corrected by as much scientific understanding as has been gathered on the human plane. They need to be reminded that although the physical evidence seems to persist and to testify to the opposite, the sun is stationary while the earth is moving with tremendous rapidity through space.

This, however, is merely the starting point for further discoveries along the same line, but as these discoveries have not yet passed the barriers of material belief, it remains for Christian Science to teach the child the difference between truth and error, and to do this in such a way that demonstration will be constantly made, even by the youngest child. The child taught in Christian Science soon learns the truth about life, and knows that life spiritually understood is inseparable from goodness; and, what is more, that in accordance with Jesus' teachings life is unending. A little boy whose parents were only slightly interested in Christian Science was passing through what seemed severe physical suffering; but the child had grasped enough of the truth to say with unshaken firmness, in the very face of this false evidence, "I know that God is my life;" and this clear conviction made the work easy for the practitioner.

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