Article January 12, 1935 Issue

"Loss is gain"

[Written Especially for Young People]

ARTHUR J. TODD

Youth is pre-eminently the period of growth and development. It requires mental fare that will build. Therefore we need not wonder that some young people refuse to be interested in those forms of religion which seem to offer only vague promises of future benefit while stressing present disciplines and limitations. They ask, as do many of their elders, and rightly, for present evidence and proof of the validity of religious promises. Mere dogma or prescription or ritual does not feed. Christian Science strips away these husks of religion and offers the rich kernel of living truth which is equally available and practical for the child, the youth, and the more mature person.

What is this truth? It is the demonstrable fact that God is the only Life, Mind, power, intelligence, substance; that God is infinite, supremely and exclusively good; that God is not a far-away abstraction, but the living, omnipresent reality, and that man is the idea, the perfect image and likeness, the beloved child, of the infinite, loving Father-Mother, who created and sustains all that is real with unerring wisdom and bounty.

But, says the student, in this world you cannot get something for nothing. What do I have to pay for this truth? Maybe the cost is too high. A young college student voiced these questions recently in a somewhat oblique way. She had been brought up in a Christian Science atmostphere but had never grasped the essentials of its teachings to the point of effective and consistent demonstration. The reason for this came out clearly when she declared, "I am afraid to accept Science or work at it seriously, for fear I should have to give up some things I like very much."

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