Article October 20, 1951 Issue

Teaching Reliance on Truth

In the twenty-first chapter of Genesis is a touching narrative which illustrates the receptivity of youth to spiritual truth. Here we read that Hagar and her son Ishmael, alone in the wilderness, were perishing with thirst. Hagar, in her great extremity, could do nothing but weep, and she turned her back to the child that she might not see him die. Undoubtedly before the separation the boy's father, Abraham, had done all he could to help both mother and child to turn expectantly to God in the trying ordeal which they were facing. But, as Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 236), "While age is halting between two opinions or battling with false beliefs, youth makes easy and rapid strides towards Truth."

So it would seem in this case that while the mother was battling with false beliefs and bowed down with grief, the boy's thought was closer to God, for we are told that "God heard the voice of the lad." After that, so the narrative continues, "The angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is." Then the mother's eyes were opened, and she saw their need abundantly met. She saw a well of water. Thus, because the boy's thought was close to God, both mother and son were saved.

Occasionally a Sunday School teacher becomes troubled because a pupil who has been taught to rely on God in every need is required by parents who are not Christian Scientists to have medical attention in case of physical illness. Such situations need not operate as a deterrent to the pupil's spiritual progress if the pupil himself relies implicitly on Truth. In many cases the fidelity of the child has served to awaken the parents' thought to the effectiveness of the Sunday School teaching, and as a result the parents have become earnest students of Christian Science.

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