Article October 24, 1925 Issue

Forethought

MARY LOUISE KLEINECKE

THE examination period had arrived at the close of the college semester. The campus was dotted with groups of serious-faced students, all seeming to dread the testing time. As Jeremiah might have expressed it, "Fear was round about;" and it voiced itself in remarks caught by a passerby: "I am afraid that my examinations will be too hard for me to pass them;" "I wish I had had more time to prepare."

A few doors from the gate of the university grounds, in a second-story window, hung the sign, "Christian Science Reading Room." This modestly furnished room, maintained by the Christian Science organization of the university, was proving to be a holy sanctuary, where that imaginary monster, fear, could not enter. Several readers were there. They had evaded those groups of fellow students who were unknowingly in league with fear and conspiring against themselves; and they were earnestly studying Christian Science literature.

The countenances of these students were calm with trust in God and in assurance of His constant availability, as omnipotent Mind. Their study was helping them to understand that an examination is neither fear-inspiring nor unfair, but a legitimate and honest investigation of a student's qualifications, by which, after a period of instruction, the teacher is enabled to estimate that student's progress. Pupils who have heeded instruction and obeyed precepts, and who have a standard of excellency, can courageously, even joyously, face such an experience. And so the Adam element, which has always cried out in fear at the thought of a test, was being quelled. Those earnest readers were glimpsing something of that fine confidence which sustained Paul, who, as Mrs. Eddy has written in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 201), "took pleasure in 'necessities,' for they tested and developed latent power." This, for a young man or woman, is a life lesson of inestimable value.

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The Wilderness
October 24, 1925
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