Democratic Youth Today

[Of Special Interest to Youth]

GERTRUDE GARBUTT THYNG

In this time of world crisis, youth is being carried forward into a much larger sphere than it formerly knew. Instead of feeling that their life purposes have been sadly interfered with, many young people recognize that these purposes were much too narrow for the bigger world into which they are moving. They would not go back into the limited way in which they were thinking. Their interests now are bound up with those of millions of others in a great effort toward world betterment.

Not only geographically are they conscious of a larger world, but spiritually they have touched something bigger than this planet, higher than the stratosphere, longer than the span of earthly years, more satisfying even than human companionship—they have touched the illimitable, the eternal, and would not turn back. They have begun to understand the words of Mary Baker Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 258), "God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis."

As these bigger issues are recognized, youth is becoming more reverent, more tender, more appreciative, and more responsive to good. In a word, it is maturing and has begun to think things through. Democracy, freedom, justice may once have been vague, taken-for-granted words; now they mean so much to most young people that they motivate their lives.

Democracy in its highest sense is the endeavor to apply the fundamental truths of Christianity in government. Today democracy is facing the biggest test it has ever been called upon to meet. An attack has been made on everything that men hold dear, and youth has been called upon to bear the brunt of that attack and to prove, on a larger scale than ever before, that evil cannot overmaster good. Youth is fired with great resolve because the outcome is of stupendous importance.

The evil of our time might be likened to a Goliath once more strutting across the stage of history. The same old lie has been acted out many times in individual and national life—evil strutting up and down, claiming to be more powerful than good, and good seeming to be the victim. But when evil has been met with full confidence in the omnipotence of God it has always gone down before good, and it always will. David said to Goliath, "Thou contest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied." And David was the victor! Evil may look powerful and even invincible, but everything within us tells us that good will be vindicated.

In the thick of battle or in the midst of arduous toil good may sometimes seem to be obliterated, but in the words of the poet:

"Though strife, ill fortune and harsh human need
Beat down the soul, at moments blind and
dumb
With agony; yet patience—there shall
come
Many great voices from life's outer sea,
Hours of strange triumph, and, when few
men heed,
Murmurs and glimpses of eternity."

Even now may be seen the possibilities of a world vastly improved because many are glimpsing that there are no barriers to good in the realm of Mind.

Man does not live in a mortal body, in a limited, material world of hate, fear, separation, and desolation. This concept of life is not good enough to satisfy anyone, and Christian Science is awakening us to see that we are really living eternally in the unfathomable love of God, where no danger or separation ever comes. As we find our oneness with God we find peace, protection, and a deepening enriching experience of transcendent value.

In her Message to The Mother Church for 1900 Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 10). "Conflict and persecution are the truest signs that can be given of the greatness of a cause or of an individual, provided this warfare is honest and a world-imposed struggle." Day after day, night after night, youth goes out with high courage because it has part in this '"world-imposed struggle." this great crusade of democracy. They feel the Rightness of their cause; they feel their oneness with good; they know where they stand, and they would not have it otherwise. It is a great age, a great cause to fight for, and youth goes forward valorously, a hymn of victory for right singing in its heart.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

Let Us Not Fear Change

June 19, 1943

Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit