Editorial February 2, 1918 Issue

"The children's bread"

Annie M. Knott

At this period we are hearing a great deal about food, and it is agreed upon all hands that although older people may have to deny themselves many things in a material way, yet the need that children shall have the right sort of food and plenty of it in their earlier years is insisted upon by all who have the good of humanity at heart. It is also true that for many years sincere efforts have been made to safeguard the moral welfare of children, and with this purpose Christian Scientists are heartily in sympathy, although they may differ in some respects from others as to how this can best be done. While Christian Scientists who are parents are careful to provide for the needs of their children in the best way possible, they accept without any reserve our Master's words, and know that children no less than adults must be taught to seek "first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness," being sure the accompanying promise, that all other things will be "added," will unfailingly be fulfilled.

Those who have studied the character and needs of children would readily admit that their deepest need is love, and this is brought out in the spiritual sense of the Lord's Prayer as found on page 17 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," namely, "Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections." A loveless childhood is indeed one of the saddest experiences of a lifetime, and yet there are some children who themselves express so much of love that others are instinctively drawn to them, and so they do not wholly miss the love which means far more in the unfoldment of character than does anything else.

In Paul's epistle to Titus we find him exhorting mothers to love their children and to be "discreet, chaste, keepers at home, ... that the word of God be not blasphemed." Although we live in a so-called Christian age this sound counsel may well be thoughtfully pondered by all of us, for the time surely makes great demands upon us which can only be met through entire spiritualization of thought. It is therefore of the utmost importance that children be prepared for the working out of their share of the tremendous problems which are facing all mankind, that the narrowness and selfishness of mere materialism may give place to the unfoldment of man's divinely bestowed capacities and possibilities. If the children are fed with Truth they will not grow up mental or moral weaklings, but will be ready to face fearlessly and effectively their share of the world's work, and to reflect to others the love which has been bestowed upon themselves. On page 61 of "Retrospection and Introspection" our revered Leader says: "Posterity will have the right to demand that Christian Science be stated and demonstrated in its godliness and grander,—that however little be taught or learned, that little shall be right. Let there be milk for babes, but let not the milk be adulterated."

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