Sunday School was over, and Jack lost no time in reaching his mother and saying breathlessly: "I want to join The Mother Church. Johnnie's going to, and may I, please?"

Jack's mother hugged her twelve-year-old son to her and said in a happy, quiet voice, "When we have finished our dinner and can sit down together in the study, let's talk it all over and ask for God's direction, shall we?" Mother's voice was so understanding that Jack knew that this was just what he most wanted to do.

Jack thought the dinner seemed longer than usual, but finally the dessert arrived, and after that came the talk with Mother in the study. Jack's mother read the definition of Church from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 583) and explained its two parts. Jack listened very carefully. He picked up a Hymnal and looked at the stamping on its cover of the Original Mother Church and the Extension. Mother told him of her joy in attending a service in the Extension once and how the Church had been built under Mrs. Eddy's direction.

Jack was full of questions about church membership, and his mother patiently answered them all. She concluded with the thought that church membership is so sacred that the desire to join The Mother Church must come straight to us from God, and not because some friend is joining, or because some loved one is urging us to do so.

Jack was happy with his mother's explanations and decided to pray about it and ask God for guidance.

In the summer, when school was out, Jack visited his grandmother in another city and had many good times. He often accompanied his grandmother to church on Sundays and Wednesday evenings and felt proud that his grandfather stood near them in the aisle, ushering. Some day he too would usher in church and pass the collection bags, or maybe play the organ. But first he must join the church and become a sturdy worker.

One day Jack told his grandmother about wanting to join The Mother Church. Grandmother took the Manual of The Mother Church and read to Jack from it. She explained that the word Manual means handbook or guidebook, and that its By-Laws are Rules to guide us. She read some helpful things on guidance of members. When she read the "Daily Prayer" (Art. VIII, Sect. 4), Jack was pleased because he already knew it by heart and could pray it every day. Then she read the By-Law entitled "Children when Twelve Years Old" (Art. IV, Sect. 3): "Children who have arrived at the age of twelve years, who are approved, and whose applications are countersigned by one of Mrs. Eddy's loyal students, by a Director, or by a student of the Board of Education, may be admitted to membership with The Mother Church."

The next day Grandmother took Jack to a Reading Room and bought him a Manual to match his own Bible and Science and Health. Jack was very glad to have his own Manual because he could see it was important for a church member to own one. When they got back to Grandmother's house they read the Tenets, on pages 15 and 16. "I can accept those Tenets all right," Jack said.

The week before Jack was to leave for home he was helping a baby kitten out of a tall tree where a dog had chased it. Suddenly they both fell to the ground with a thump. The kitten jumped up and ran away, but Jack called to his grandmother for help. Things did not seem right with his arm.

Grandmother got her Bible and read aloud to Jack (Eph. 4:4, 6), "There is one body, and one Spirit, ... one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." Grandmother explained that this one body is not made up of brain, muscles, and bones, but of ideas, pure and perfect. Jack could understand that what God made perfect He sustains in all its beautiful wholeness. Soon he sprang to his feet, healed.

He told his mother about his healing when he got home, and she rejoiced with him. He also showed her his new Manual.

During the next school year Jack was busy with work and play. He loved to read the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly in the morning before he went to school. One morning he read these words in Science and Health (p. 35): "Our church is built on the divine Principle, Love. We can unite with this church only as we are new-born of Spirit, as we reach the Life which is Truth and the Truth which is Life by bringing forth the fruits of Love,—casting out error and healing the sick."

Again he lost no time in reaching his mother and telling her that he wanted to join The Mother Church. "And now," said Jack, "I know I am ready to join." Mother was as happy as was Jack, for she too felt that now it truly was God and not a person that was directing Jack to apply for membership.

Together Jack and his mother went to the Reading Room of their church and got an application blank. Jack liked studying the instruction folder and doing just what it said in filling out the forms.

His mother had a friend who was a teacher of Christian Science. Jack telephoned her himself and made an appointment, for he must have the proper signatures. While in her office Jack told the teacher that if you loved baseball you joined a team and played on it and helped it to win. He said he loved Christian Science and wanted to join the church and help it. "A church that is bringing healing to children and grownups all over the world is worth working for," Jack said.

The teacher asked Jack how he proposed to pay his per capita tax, which members of The Mother Church pay each year. "That's easy," he said. "You see, I take care of the chickens, cut the grass, and help with the dishes, and I get an allowance. That gives me lots of money to send to my church." Soon the application was in the mail and on its way to Boston.

Weeks passed, and one evening there was a letter from Boston at Jack's place at the dinner table. What joy! He was accepted! He was now a member of The Mother Church. Surely graduating from high school or college, or getting his first job, wouldn't be half so important! Jack was so happy that he asked Mother and Daddy to excuse him for a little while. He went to his room. He sat at his desk and made a big poster. It read, "I am a member of The Mother Church," and in the lower right-hand corner he neatly printed the date of admission. Jack hung the poster over his desk, a reminder to himself to think, speak, and act always as becomes a church member. He felt so grateful that children when twelve years old may join The Mother Church when led of God to do so.