Article June 3, 1922 Issue

"Except ye ... become"

MAUD DREWRY

The divine wisdom of our Master's declaration, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven," has been made clear to the writer many times by the children who are students of Christian Science. Some time ago, a woman who had been feeling ill all day suddenly sank down on a chair. Her little boy of eight years looked at her, and, with a child's ready compassion, exclaimed, "Oh, poor dear!" and, then, bethinking himself quickly, added: "Never mind! It will be all right." He turned away for a moment, and stood with closed eyes and bowed head; then, returning to his mother with a smile, said brightly, "You're quite all right now, aren't you?" "Yes," she said truthfully; for she felt perfectly well. When she asked him how he had done his mental work, he answered: "Just in the usual way. I knew matter has no sensation, that God is everywhere, and where He is there can be no pain or sickness or error of any kind; and then I thanked Him twice." Wishing to be shown the full beauty of the treatment, the woman asked, "Why did you thank Him twice?" To which the boy replied: "When one is very grateful, one always says, 'Thank you,' twice. Sometimes, I thank God four or five times."

"I thanked Him twice!" What a vista this opened to the mother; and how it made her understand why so many of a child's demonstrations are instantaneous. To this little one, once was enough to deny error as reality and affirm the ever-presence of Love; but gratitude for the healing truth could not be expressed in merely one, "Thank you, dear God!" Then, too, how like was this method of healing to Jesus' own, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me," before those around saw the raising of the man, Lazarus, they had called dead.

How often does the beginner in the study of Christian Science make his statement of the truth, and then, instead of resting happily in the consciousness that the omnipotence of God will annihilate everything unlike Himself, become possessed with a vague sense of unrest, and a desire to know if his "treatment" has been successful; and, eventually perhaps, he becomes puzzled when he finds that it has not. Can that way possibly be called the method of Science—of exact knowledge, or knowing? Also, where does gratitude come in? Can one be grateful if he is not sure? And if he is not grateful, how is he to do his healing? There is no other way than that of Jesus, who was ever grateful. When destroying the belief of lack of food in the wilderness, he "gave thanks" before the multitude was fed. He was the Way-shower; and he impressed upon all mankind that they could not climb up and enter the fold in any way other than his.

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