"Arithmetic" is quite a big word, but a familiar one to most children. A dictionary defines "arithmetic" as the "science of numbers" and "science" as a "knowledge, as of ... facts." A fact, according to one definition, is a truth; so to study arithmetic really means to get to know the truth about numbers.

A boy's first lessons in arithmetic were in simple addition; but before he was given any problems to work out he had first to learn some of the number facts of addition, such as two and two is four, three and four is seven, five and five is ten. He learned that these facts or truths cannot change; that they remain always the same, everywhere, because numbers are governed by an unchanging law. Although he was just a beginner in the study of this big subject, he found that his knowledge of number-facts was always ready to help him, in many ways and places. It served him when he counted marbles in the school yard, added the pennies in his bank at home, or shared treats with his sister.

When the boy learned the truth that five and five is ten, that was all he needed to know about five and five. It was not necessary to know that five and five is not twelve, or any other error about five and five. Had he tried to get number-facts that way, his thoughts would have been so confused as to result in arithmetical answers that were mostly incorrect. When he was not quite sure of his addition, he made mistakes; and until these errors were discovered and corrected with the truth about the numbers, the sum was not properly worked out.

Two children from the kindergarten, who knew nothing about number facts, were asked to write on the board the answer to five and five. One child wrote six, and the other one eight. The boy saw these numbers, written on the board as answers to five and five, but knew they were mistakes, false beliefs. He had thoroughly learned the truth about five and five, and this understanding prevented him from being disturbed by errors that were evident only to his eyes.

At Sunday school, the boy was taught about a far greater subject, Christian Science. This divine Science teaches facts about God and His spiritual creation, and how to use these facts to solve problems of discord. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, has written a textbook on this vast subject that is helping untold numbers of people to master difficulties great and small. On page 275 of this textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she has written, "The starting-point of divine Science is that God, Spirit, is All-in-all, and that there is no other might nor Mind,—that God is Love, and therefore He is divine Principle."

The boy could understand that if God's spiritual creation is a reflection of Love there can be no errors in it. He knew that if his eyes should see a discord, thus trying to suggest to him that Love is not everywhere, he must turn from it with the certainty that it is error, and has no more truth in it than the five and five is six he had seen written on the blackboard at school. Just as a child's knowledge of arithmetic helps him with numerical problems, such as keeping scores or counting change, so pupils in the Christian Science Sunday Schools are taught to use their understanding of Truth to overcome the daily difficulties that beset them.

A little girl was able to prove the unreality of a headache. For the time being it claimed to be true, and part of her. For a while the little girl believed it, and asked permission to go home at recess. On the way home, however, she remembered what she had been taught in Sunday school about the First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." This made her realize that she must not let herself be deceived into believing that any discord can ever be true about God's child. She would not accept the error that five and five is six, because she knew that five and five is ten; so she must not believe an error about Love's creation. The following Sunday she told her teacher that she knew that if all space is filled with divine Love there could not be anywhere for a headache; that the headache was no part of her, or of God's creation at all, and so it really was not anywhere. All the way home, she said, she kept on thinking about Truth, as she had been taught in Christian Science, and when she reached home the headache was gone.

This little girl had proved that knowing the truth, and holding to it steadfastly, had freed her from an error; and this is surely what Jesus meant when he said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

Some arithmetic exercises seem quite difficult, requiring much hard work before they are worked out; but the pupil always knows that by obedience to the rules of mathematics perfect solutions can be obtained.

A discordant trial sometimes needs patient, persistent mental work before it is solved; but the Christian Science student knows that in God, divine Principle, there are no discordant conditions. His faithful study of the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings gradually fills his thoughts with the understanding of the allness of divine Love; and then the discord disappears, for it never had any real existence.

On page 3 of the Christian Science textbook Mrs. Eddy says: "Who would stand before a blackboard, and pray the principle of mathematics to solve the problem? The rule is already established, and it is our task to work out the solution. Shall we ask the divine Principle of all goodness to do His own work? His work is done, and we have only to avail ourselves of God's rule in order to receive His blessing, which enables us to work out our own salvation."