"They shall not hurt nor destroy"

EDITH MAUDE ELLIS

On five different occasions the words in the prophecy of Isaiah, "They shall not hurt nor destroy," and the similar ones spoken by the Master to his disciples, "Nothing shall by any means hurt you," helped me to prove the powerlessness of a wasp's sting to cause any discord. The following experience may prove helpful to parents who have a fear of such things for their children.

I had been making jam, and on finishing gave the preserving pan to my three year old daughter, who always looked forward to a pleasant half hour with the pan and a spoon after jam making. In a few minutes some wasps began to show serious intentions of sharing the booty with the child. At first she strongly objected, but I explained to her that the wasps loved the jam just as much as she did, and that she must either give up the pleasure of scraping the pan at all, or else be unselfish and let the wasps have their share also, as it was impossible to keep them off. I assured her that if she could remember that she was God's child and so could not and would not be harmed, because Love was all around her, she would reflect love and could have quite a happy time. Then I left her in the garden to work out the problem for herself, and proceeded to do other work in the house.

Half an hour later I went out to the garden, and the little one called to me, "I am loving the wasps all the time, mama, and there's plenty for us all." They were swarming around her, and her attitude of love and fearlessness toward them caused a prayer of gratitude to go up from my heart. Here we may remember the words immediately preceding the text already quoted from Isaiah, "The sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den."

At dinner shortly afterward the same little girl inadvertently put her hand on a wasp which was on the table, and immediately called out that something had pricked her. The other children exclaimed that she was stung. As I declared the truth for her and told them to do the same, I saw the picture of the morning, and with another great wave of gratitude remembered Mrs. Eddy's statement that even "the serpent of God's creating is neither subtle nor poisonous" (Science and Health, p. 515), and knew that the sting could in no wise hurt her. I tucked her up for her midday sleep, and as I kissed her she murmered, "Love will take the white spot away." When she awoke all trace of the spot was gone and there had been no pain at all.

That night, as my eldest girl laid her head on her pillow, a wasp stung her. The baby was just saying "the scientific statement of being" (Science and Health, p. 468) to her daddy before going to sleep, and as her sister ran in to tell her father about the sting, they all joined in declaring the truth. In this instance too there was no pain whatever. Twice again during the season the little one was stung, and each time she quaintly said, "Love's tooken the sting all away!" On the fifth occasion I was stung, and once more the truth made free and there was no pain.

I could not help realizing that if only we would trust the promises of our loving Father-Mother God, given in an infinite variety of ways and through an infinite variety of channels, as my little girl had trusted my word, how soon we should be dwelling in the spiritual altitude mentioned by the prophet, and proving for ourselves and for the whole world that "they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord."

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"Work out your own salvation"

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