Jimmy and Paul had lived all of their eight years on neighboring farms, and they were very fond of each other. However, there was one thing about this friendship that troubled Jimmy. Paul liked to tease, and this made Jimmy angry.

Now Jimmy had been going to the Christian Science Sunday School since he was three years old. and there he had learned that God is Love, and that man is His image and likeness. He had also learned the Ten Commandments, and now his class was reviewing them. The Sunday before they had repeated the First Commandment as given in Exodus (20:3). "Thou shall have no other gods before me." The teacher had explained that it meant they should not give error power to make them believe that they could be dishonest, unkind, angry, or sick. Instead, they were to know God as the only power and presence and man as reflecting His goodness.

Jimmy had early been taught that God is the only power. He had never had anything but Christian Science help when he was sick, and it always healed him. But he didn't see how Christian Science could stop Paul from tormenting him.

One day Jimmy's mother said they might play on the haystack behind the barn. She walked as far as the garden wall with them and then went to pick flowers in the garden. She had just finished filling her basket with flowers when Jimmy opened the gate.

"What happened, Jimmy?" she asked, catching sight of his tear-stained face.

"Paul teased me. so we had a fight and now he's gone home mad," he sobbed.

Mother sat down in the garden swing. "Jimmy, go in and get my Bible and Science and Health. I'm going to read you what our Leader writes about guarding our thoughts, and then I'll tell you a Bible story."

Jimmy ran into the house and soon came back with the books. Mother opened her copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy and read (p. 392): "Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously."

"Do you know what a porter's duties are, Jimmy?" she asked.

"Yes," said Jimmy, "our Sunday School teacher told us that one of his duties is to guard the door so that only the people who belong in the house can enter."

"That's right." said Mother. "When we guard our thought door and let only good thoughts enter our thinking, then error cannot make us angry and quarrelsome."

"But how is that going to stop Paul from teasing me?" asked Jimmy. "He doesn't go to the Christian Science Sunday School, so he doesn't know how to guard his thought door."

"It is only error tempting you to think that Paul is unkind and trying to torment you," his mother answered. "Error has no power of its own, Jimmy. The only power it has is the power we give it. When you stop giving it power and believing in it, it will stop teasing you. And now I'm going to tell you about a man named Nehemiah who guarded his thought door and refused to give error any power.

"Nehemiah had heard that the wall around Jerusalem had broken down. So he decided to go there and rebuild it. He knew that the wall would protect the people, and he wanted them to be safe and happy. His enemies, however, did not want the wall rebuilt. So when they saw that the wall was rapidly going up they tried to stop Nehemiah's great work by coaxing him to come down from the wall and talk to them. And this is what Nehemiah said to them (Neh. 6:3): 'I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?' You see, Jimmy, Nehemiah was standing guard at his thought door. He knew that it was error that was speaking to him, and because he refused to listen to error and give it power, he was able to finish the wall.

"Do you know what our 'truth wall' is, Jimmy?"

"Yes," said Jimmy, "it's built of the truth we learn at Sunday School. I'm going to start guarding my thought door right now and let in only the good things I learn each week. Then I'll be building my 'truth wall,' won't I, Mummy?"

"That is right," said Mother. "Good thoughts are the stones you will need. The most important one is love. Then you will need kindness, understanding, forgiveness, thought fulness, and truthfulness. And don't stop building your wall, Jimmy, to come down and listen to error's lie that none of these stones are real or good, and that you should not build the wall."

"No," said Jimmy. "I'm not going to give error any more power to make me angry; then Paul and I'll have fun again."

When his mother had gone into the house Jimmy sat quietly thinking of all the stones in his "truth wall." He thought of Nehemiah, of the loving thoughts which had gone into building that great wall at Jerusalem. "My wall will keep me safe from error, too." Jimmy said to himself, "because I'm going to use all those good stones and they will keep error outside of my thinking." He was still busy building his wall of truth when he heard Paul calling.

"Hey, Jim, let's go and play on the haystack again. I won't tease you; honest I won't."