"And a little child shall lead them"

MARION L. KISCH

Among the well-known texts in the Old Testament is the declaration by Isaiah, "A little child shall lead them," which is preceded by the words, "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together." If the meaning is not quite clear to the reader, a passage on page 569 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy will clarify it: "The Scripture, Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many,' is literally fulfilled, when we are conscious of the supremacy of Truth, by which the nothingness of error is seen. ... He that touches the hem of Christ's robe and masters his mortal beliefs, animality, and hate, rejoices in the proof of healing,—in a sweet and certain sense that God is Love."

In an interesting interview published in the New York Herald of May 1, 1901, our beloved Leader said her successor would be a man (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 343); but a fortnight later she found it necessary to amplify this statement by a brief explanation, concluding with the words (ibid., p. 347), "What remains to lead on the centuries and reveal my successor, is man in the image and likeness of the Father-Mother God, man the generic term for mankind." This statement of our Leader is of great importance.

Surely it must be clear to the understanding eye that the generic man of Mrs. Eddy's thought and the "little child" of Isaiah's are analogous. It is not the mere trustfulness of a human child, beautiful and pure though it be, that will lead the world out of animality and hate, out of sin and mortality; it is the pure and exalted thought which overcomes sin through a clear understanding of the all-loving God, and which sees only the perfect man of God's creating, the Godlike man, and recognizes no false, sinful, human misconception of man.

Let us hasten on the upward path, then, that we may fit ourselves to play our part in following this grand leadership of divine Truth! Never will condemnation of or sympathy with error or evil lead out of sin, for both would make a reality of evil. But sin is made impossible of expression as human thought is so purified that it cannot behold a sinner as real. Who can be a sinner if sin be refused admittance to thought? We can never succeed, however, in seeing the utter unreality of sin so long as we fail to distinguish clearly and completely between the real man and the counterfeit, mortal man, so long as we continue to believe that sin has its necessities, so long as we continue to say, in excuse of animality and hate, "Suffer it to be so now."

What is unlike divine Love must be Love's opposite—fear, animality, hate. When we come to analyze our thoughts, how often, how sadly often, do we fail in our supreme duty to our neighbor as defined by Jesus! Yes, it is clear that only thought which is refined and purified—purified, perhaps, through coming out of great tribulation—can lead mankind out of sorrow and sin into the realization of man as sinless, perfect, divine, and "altogether lovely."

We do not reach perfection in a day, but we can begin this very hour to practice right thinking. When the temptation comes to take a person at his own or others' false valuation, to accept evil as true of him in the slightest or the greatest degree, let us, as Christian Scientists, look above and beyond the mortal seeming to the real, the spiritual. God's man is a divine idea. The fault we see as real in another, we admit to our own consciousness. We cannot see ourselves aright as perfect if we accept imperfection as real in another.

In the place where the Father's own children are—in divine Mind—there are no angry words; sin being unknown, lust, greed, and hatred are without existence.

Moreover, the good we practice in regard to those around us we must also translate into world terms. The barriers of nationality, race, color, class, and creed will not long withstand the onslaught of Truth and Love, if each of us individually cultivates a peaceable, loving way of thinking, always rejecting the false suggestions and rejoicing in the true view of man.

We must all accept God's grant to us of that childlike purity of vision which enables us to behold the perfection of His creation; and may we all be willing to pay the price of the divine promotion, "I will make thee ruler over many things"!

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