Editorial May 9, 1931 Issue

Children

Clifford P. Smith

IN the Old Testament, different speakers and writers referred to God as the Father of His people, Israel. In the New Testament, Christ Jesus spoke of Him as the Father of all men and of each one. (See Matthew 18:12-14.) As the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy formulated the equally strong and even more tender name "Father-Mother."

The love of human parents for their children is the best symbol ever found for the affection, care, and provision of the divine Parent for man. Likewise, the child possesses typically the qualities of thought which are most apt to be needed by the Christian Scientist. The great Teacher said, "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein" (Mark 10:15; Luke 18:17). God is now the Father-Mother of man, and man is now the offspring only of this Parent. Nevertheless, for emerging from the seeming existence called human or even mortal, an adult Christian Scientist may need to become as a child in order to become an instance of the real man.

Of all the qualities often shown by little folks and often lacked by grown people, none, except absolute goodness or spirituality itself, is more important than receptivity. Practically speaking, receptiveness to spiritual teaching is essential to genuine progress and to complete salvation. On the other hand, no form of evil is more harmful to the human self than openness to erroneous arguments or impulses. To be happy, useful, and wholesome consists largely in keeping one's thought wide open to every phase of spiritual good or Truth but completely closed to any phase of evil or error. The new birth, Mrs. Eddy has said, "begins with moments, and goes on with years; moments of surrender to God, of childlike trust and joyful adoption of good; moments of self-abnegation, self-consecration, heaven-born hope, and spiritual love" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 15). For true receptivity, it would be difficult to find a better description than "joyful adoption of good."

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