Article March 24, 1951 Issue

LOVING OUR LESSONS

[Of Special Interest to Young People]

ROSEMARY C. COBHAM

Mary was one of the oldest girls in her school and was in the top form. Everyone in the rest of her form was a school prefect, so it was natural to suppose, when there was need to vote for a new prefect, that Mary would be chosen. However, for quite a while Mary had been wrestling with what appeared to be an erratic temperament. Sometimes she was steady and at peace, but at other tunes she was restless and entirely irresponsible. So when the voting took place, Mary was not elected. Instead, a much younger girl from a lower form was promoted over her. This was an overwhelming blow to Mary. She felt bitter and acutely self-conscious, especially when she thought of being the only girl in her form who would not be exempted as a prefect from waiting upon others at table.

For a long time Mary had cherished another desire, one which meant even more to her than being elected a prefect at school. She was a Christian Scientist and had attended Sunday School since she was two and a half years old. Her most earnest wish was that she might become a public practitioner of Christian Science. She knew that every practitioner's first patient is himself, and that if she were going to help others later on she must heal the erroneous condition in her own thought now. She saw, too, that she had a lesson to learn which she would profit by long after the immediate problem was healed, and she resolved to learn the lesson happily under the tender and omnipotent guidance of Love.

With childlike expectancy she turned to her copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy and opened it at page 31. These lines at the top of the page stood out to her: "Pride and fear are unfit to bear the standard of Truth, and God will never place it in such hands." With a sense of awe she read the words over and over again. Never before had she realized the nearness of God so clearly or seen the truly individual way in which He meets the human need.

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