Safety

[Written Especially for Children]

JULIA M. JOHNSTON

Bob's father was a soldier. He was going away in a few days and Bob did not know just where, or for how long. He and Bob had talked together about this, and the son knew that he had to be a soldier too. There would be many things to do about which he had never thought before, because father was going to depend upon him to help mother and to look after the house.

There was firewood to be brought up from the cellar, there were wastebaskets to be emptied there were errands to be run on his bicycle. He could hang up his clothes instead of leaving them on the floor, and could put away his boots instead of leaving them for mother to care for.

Of course he had to keep on with school, but rather than going out to play every day after his lessons, he could spend some time with his mother. There would be so much to talk about while he helped her with the supper, or while she mended his socks before bedtime. Perhaps he could even earn a little money and surprise mother with a gift as father did.

After all, the thing that would help most was what they knew of Christian Science. That would carry them through these times. It would be a good idea to ask father about their being separated. Father must have thought that out. So the next time Bob and his father were together the son opened the subject.

"Father, how can I think rightly about you when you are away?"

The sun was pouring through the window near which they were sitting and a ray of light rested on his father's hand.

After a moment, without looking up, the lad's father said: "Bob, look at this ray of light. Bring a book and see if you can cover it up. Then bring the pillow from the couch and put it on top of the book. Then get the heavy tray on the table and put it on top of the pillow."

When the boy had done this the beam rested serenely on top of the tray. Nothing that they had done had severed the ray from the sun.

"You see, Bob, a ray of light cannot be entirely surrounded, cut off from its source, imprisoned, isolated, rendered useless or helpless, or destroyed. Its nature cannot be changed, because it is tributary only to the sun. If the ray rested upon a pile of dirt in the street, it could not take in any of the filth because it is not subject to the dirt, but only to the sun."

Bob remembered that Mrs. Eddy had written about this in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." They found the statement on page 361: "As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man, Father and son, are one in being."

Quietly they both thought of this wonderful truth about man's inseparability from God. Then Bob said, "That would be true of you anywhere, anytime, would it not, father?"

"Yes, son. Not even the belief in war can change Truth."

"That would be true about mother and me too, would it not?"

"Yes, my boy."

"Then I will never be afraid for you. You won't be afraid for us either, will you?"

"No, my lad."

Father had thought it out. After he had left, one day Bob found a piece of paper tucked in his reefer pocket, and this was what was on it: "'I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me'" (Acts 26:13).

"Love,
"Father."

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