A Child's Demonstration

JULIA M. JOHNSTON

When Elizabeth was a very small baby, someone had told her mother about Christian Science. Her mother had been sick for a long time, so she was very grateful when Christian Science healed her mother quickly. If her dear mother had never been told about Christian Science, it might have made a very great difference to Elizabeth, because there might not have been anyone to explain to her how people can be healed, and can help others by knowing the thoughts of God.

One morning Elizabeth thought that she could not go to school, for a headache seemed to try to make her believe that it belonged to her. She did not think of asking any person to help her, for her mother had taught her always to ask God, since it is God's power that heals. So she started for school thinking some thoughts which God was giving to her as she went along. Of course, these thoughts were about good and its presence and the peace it gives to man. When she reached the schoolroom she felt so bad that she could not see the figures on the blackboard. But she kept right on thinking good, because she knew that pain always has to give up when you understand the presence and power of good. Elizabeth knew that God gave her all that she really had, and that God is Love. Love could not make a headache, because sickness is not lovely. So it could not be hers if God never made it nor gave it to her.

When she was really sure of this—instead of just saying it—and was glad about it, the headache went away. When you are glad about good, this means that you do not believe in error any more. And then you know that error is not real. If it had been real for a single minute, Elizabeth thought, it could not have gone away and gone nowhere. So error was just a lie, and a lie never belongs to anybody and is never true. It was so good to find this out; it made her very thankful to feel how close she was to Love that is God, and to see how quick Love had been to help her when she just tried to know what Love knows, which is that good is all there is.

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