Article November 14, 1931 Issue

"As a little child"

LILA ROSE

On pages 323 and 324 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy has written, "Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea." There is nothing obscure in this passage; nevertheless the application of its substance at times seems difficult. Civilization, education, and false theology may have filled our lives so full of false gods that the simple and trusting child-thought has been greatly obscured. Did not Jesus say, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven"?

While riding on a street car an earnest student of Christian Science recently observed an illuminating incident. A winsome little girl of about two years of age slid happily down from the seat and followed her mother to the end of the car. The door was opened, the mother descended and held out her arms towards the child. Without a second's hesitation or a backward glance the little one dropped off the car into the mother's waiting arms. The child's abandonment of the platform on which she was standing, the unqualified confidence with which she approached her loving mother, her complete ignoring of the space to be bridged, and her expectant reliance on the outstretched arms furnished a precious lesson to the observer. There was no intermediate step, no doubt of the mother's power to sustain her, no desire to remain where she was when the mother's plan led in another direction.

How very different often is the attitude of the adult when he finds his mental method needs to be changed! Though he feels the desire to forsake the old accustomed road, he hesitates, seeing the gap to be bridged, and is unwilling to supplant limited human views and personal efficiency with the divine, universal pathway of spiritual ideas and their unfailing guidance and support.

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