Article September 9, 1933 ISSUE

The First Music Lesson

[Written Especially for Children]

OLGA PRINTZLAU

One spring morning the new piano arrived and was set in its place. In eager anticipation the family gathered to listen as the mother played upon it, and then the youngest of the family asked to have her turn. Seating herself upon the stool she beat her little hands upon the keys, but the result was very different from the effect produced by the mother's playing. The untrained little hands could bring no harmony from the keys. In great disappointment she looked up to her mother and asked, "But where is the music?"

The mother remembered what Mrs. Eddy had so carefully explained in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 467), "Reasoning from cause to effect in the Science of Mind, we begin with Mind, which must be understood through the idea which expresses it and cannot be learned from its opposite, matter." Many times the mother herself had looked to material things hoping to find harmony. The patient study of Christian Science had taught her that only through the understanding of the divine Principle of harmony and the application of its rule could she attain the demonstration of perfection.

The child, who was usually loving and obedient, became impatient. She wanted to do the things others did, not realizing the necessity of study and patient practice, and this impatience brought her tears and unhappiness. The mother lifted the little hands from the keys and took the child into the garden to a favorite nook where they often went to read and study. There, with nature flowering abundantly about them, the mother taught the child the lesson which she, as a student of Christian Science, was learning. She pointed out that the lovely flowers, the tall, graceful trees, are obedient to the so-called laws of nature; the humble little violet does not fret itself because it cannot grow on a high tree, nor does the rose sigh for the wings of a bird that it may fly away. Neither do earnest little students of Christian Science become impatient and unhappy because of present seemingly limiting conditions. Like the flowers and trees which grow and bloom, children, by obedient practice, unfold daily in expressing the beautiful qualities which reflect the Father. And they can use these truths to help them in their work with music, art, at school, or in the simple, but equally important, duties in the home.

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