Article January 10, 1920 Issue

Lessons from the Child Thought

FLORENCE PARKER ATWOOD

Many helpful lessons have been taught the writer by the child thought. Our dear Master knew well whereof he spoke when he said, "Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Once while I was teaching a class of boys in the Sunday school, the subject was brought up of the trials of the children of Israel when they were passing through the wilderness. We were talking of how they murmured at Moses and became discontented and dissatisfied. One boy said that the children of Israel were not happy because they were not grateful. How many times have these words been remembered when the temptation to be unhappy has presented itself. The questions have then come to thought: Am I unhappy? Am I grateful? Is there room for unhappiness and gratitude in the same place?

Another lesson was learned from a very tiny child. The mother was alone with the child in a large city. She was in a big crowd and far from any person she knew. Suddenly she was seized with a feeling of faintness and nausea, and then error suggested all sorts of dreadful things which might befall her if she should become unconscious right there. What would become of her? What would become of the baby? As she looked down at the child, the little one clasped her hand tighter and looked up into her face and smiled. The baby had no sense of fear: Did he not have a tight hold of his mother's hand? He was enjoying the crowd and the sights of the busy city and had no fear that anything could happen to him with mother so close at hand. Was not that the safest place in the world?

Then the mother thought: Is not my Father-Mother God right here too? Have I not a tight hold of my Father's hand just at this moment? Is He not, as the poet says, closer to us than breathing, nearer than hands and feet? I can be just as sure as this little child that no harm can come to me, wherever I am. How thankful I am that my Father-Mother God is always at hand to save and bless! Then this comforting assurance from the Bible came to her, "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." Immediately all nausea, faintness, and fear left her and she went on her way rejoicing. These words sang themselves over and over again in her thought as she finished her shopping in thankfulness,—words which had been part of a solo that had been sung in church the Sunday before: "Hold Thou my hand, dear Lord. Hold Thou my hand."

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

In the Direction of Light