Article November 18, 1950 Issue

"BLESSED ARE THE MEEK"

[Of Special Interest to Children]

JEAN M. GARBER

Sue was a very little girl the day she entered the Christian Science Sunday School. She was taught the first lessons as outlined in Article XX, Section 3, of the Manual of The Mother Church by our Leader, which reads: "The first lessons of the children should be the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20: 3–17), the Lord's Prayer (Matt. 6:9–13), and its Spiritual Interpretation by Mary Baker Eddy, Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:3–12)." Sue loved Sunday School and never wanted to be absent. She memorized all the lessons quickly and delighted in reciting them when asked to do so. But as she moved into other classes, she found it necessary to understand better what these first lessons meant and learn how to apply them every day.

One Sunday, Sue's teacher asked her to review for the next Sunday the third beatitude (Matt. 5:5), "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth," and to tell what it meant to her. She thought about this beatitude and finally asked her mother to explain it. They turned to a dictionary and the Concordances to Mrs. Eddy's writings to find the meaning of the words.

First they found that blessed means happy or joyful, while a meaning of meek is "not easily provoked or irritated." And inherit means to be put in possession of or to be given dominion over. On page 559 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy refers to earth, when considered in its material meaning, as symbolic of visible error and audible sin. They found many references in Mrs. Eddy's writings which show the importance of being meek. Jesus was meek, and his meekness made him mighty. In her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 Mrs. Eddy says (p. 19), "Meekness is the armor of a Christian, his shield and his buckler." This showed them that meekness is our defense, guarding and protecting us from all that is unlike God.

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