Article February 20, 1937 Issue

Message and Messenger

[Written Especially for Young People]

DAVID HELLYER

One evening in early fall a young student of Christian Science walked to a quiet grove near a small pond. Sitting silently in the dusk, he could distinguish the sounds of many small woodland creatures close at hand as they sang their evening chorus. From the pond came the chirp of the tiny peeper frog and the bass note of the bullfrog. Other small creatures lent their voices to the evening symphony.

The student found peace and calm in this melody. How soothing, he thought, are the songs of these humble creatures! To look at them, one would scarcely believe them capable of bringing one such a sense of peace and calm.

In this experience the student was reminded of the many instances in which the mere external appearance of an acquaintance or a friend had impressed him unfavorably until he had observed the good which the individual was striving to express. How often, he thought, he had allowed a false sense of the personality of a public speaker, a teacher, or a companion to rob him of the message of good which that one had to give. Instead of listening to the message, as he had done in the wood, he had outwardly observed the messenger.

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