God's Minutemen

[Written Especially for Children]

ALICE GARDINER KNAPP

WE are all more or less familiar with the story of the minutemen who played such an important part in the gaining of the independence of the United States of America. It is not necessary for us to wait until we are grown up in order to be God's minutemen, prepared and ready for active service. Right now, in our school, home, sports, and Sunday school, we can prove ourselves loyal servants. Do we fully appreciate the great privilege of serving God? Let us consider some of the ways by which we can prove our right to the title of minutemen.

A dictionary gives the following definition of "minuteman": "A man ready for service at a minute's notice." Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 158), "All God's servants are minute men and women." What constitutes service in Christian Science? Is not our chief service, or duty, to reflect God in our daily lives and to prove ourselves worthy to be called His children? Some of the meanings of "ready" are, "To be prepared for use or action, to be prepared in mind, to be willing, to be prompt."

Those minutemen of history were always prepared—always had their weapons close at hand and ready for instant use. They responded to duty's call instantly, willingly, and whole-heartedly. What are some of our weapons? Do we keep them at hand and ready for instant use? Are we prompt in standing for what we know to be right? Are we actively engaged in spreading joy; and are we always whole-heartedly ready to aid those in need? Have we ever considered how much good even a sunny smile may do, and how much happiness a kind word may bring? Are we watching our thoughts?

Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 392), "Stand porter at the door of thought." She also says in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 210), "Good thoughts are an impervious armor; clad therewith you are completely shielded from the attacks of error of every sort." Here is presented a most important defense—good thoughts. How can we cultivate good thoughts, and how can we fit ourselves to be of service? We can attend Sunday school regularly, striving to be prompt, doing our best to prepare whatever lesson is given us; for it is in Sunday school that we are gaining much of the necessary training for our work as God's minutemen. We can refuse to allow disobedient, unloving, lazy suggestions to enter our consciousness. We can learn to grow more loving, more responsible, more ready to go out into the world and take our appointed places.

Think how our work at school would improve if we were always actively striving to shut out thoughts of inability and failure, and were opening our consciousness to positive thoughts of achievement and success! A young student of Christian Science proved that she is awake to her privilege of being one of God's minutemen. She was taking a Latin examination, and seemed unable to remember the Latin word for "wing." Her Sunday school class had discussed at a previous Sunday school session the efficacy of the teachings of Christian Science as an aid in school work, and she resolved to put this knowledge to use. She knew that God's child is a reflection of the perfect Mind; that he has unlimited intelligence, and that nothing real can ever be lost. She pondered these facts for several minutes without any seeming result. Then she turned her thought to God as divine Love, who, as Mrs. Eddy says, "always has met and always will meet every human need" (Science and Health, p. 494). Soon thereafter she remembered the Latin word for "wing." She had her weapon—trust in God—close at hand and used it promptly and efficiently.

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