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GIFT OF
CHILD UNFOLDMENT
By ANNIE RIX MIL1TZ
CHILD UNFOLDMENT
INSTRUCTION IN THE WAY TO
TRAIN CHILDREN THROUGH
THE SILENT INFLUENCE
OF THOUGHT
BY
ANNIE RIX MILITZ
Published by
THE MASTER MIND PUBLISHING COMPANY
Los Angeles, Cal.
1916
Copyright, 1916, by
The Master Mind Publishing Co.
PREFACE
N these days of spiritual psychology, new
powers are being revealed by which to teach
and train natures, that have not been amen-
able to mere external methods. Furthermore
it has been found that the education of the
thoughts and feelings is the best way to bring the
external child to its highest culture.
The following teachings are from the experience,
as well as the deep spiritual conviction, of many
besides the writer, who have proven that "the mind
makes the man" and that as Socrates said, "If you
would have children act aright, you must teach them
to form correct judgments."
May the good Reader be able to profit by these
writings, through the sure testimony of three
witnesses: the Spirit, the Intellect and the Senses.
May what has been written from the Spirit be read
by the Spirit within you, that which is given from
the Intellect be found reasonable, and that which
Sense has experienced be demonstrated to your
senses.
And may many children bless the day that this
little book saw the light.
THE AUTHOR
Los Angeles,
Thanksgiving Day, 1916.
360756
"THINE THEY WERE"
"And thou gavest them me." John 17:6.
The mother thinks
The child is hers,
And so, at times, is almost overwhelmed
With that responsibility.
The child, in fact,
Is not her own,
But God's
And she is just the instrument
Which God has used
To manifest in human form
Another bit of His Omniscient Mind.
LOUISE MAYERS MEREDITH,
from Mother's Magazine.
I.
The Holy Family
Beyond Nature to Nature's God
1HE Path of Immortal Life leads through
Nature to Nature's God. Every step is a
transcending of the natural ways. Yet
the Christ-method does no violence to
natural law while bearing us above it into
the great Law of the Spirit, wherein is eternal and
unlimited peace and joy.
The virtue of Nature is its simplicity, innocence
and freedom. These are negative in character and
therefore incomplete. Not until the positive princi-
ples of Spirit have supplemented these beauties of
Nature, does the perfect Eden again appear. There
is no going "back to Nature" on the part of man to
find the ideal life as well might he expect to return
to the seed whence his body developed. We shall be
truly natural, and joy in primeval life again, as we
find Nature in God.
Procreation Ascending
The relationships among the lower orders of ani-
mal life are, at first, regardless of the welfare of
offspring, but as the Spirit presses more and more
upon the animal world, intelligence increases, affec-
tion develops, order, harmony and wise selection and
preservation are more and more in evidence, until
the greatest touch of the Spirit upon the natural
institution the marriage evolved by man gives us
the ideal Family, one father, one mother and their
children, living in highest consciousness of the Divin-
ity in each and all.
5
6 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
The father and mother who have come together
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and whose
child, in their sight, can be described as the Angel
Gabriel foretold of Jesus, "that holy thing which
shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God/'
form the Blessed Trinity on earth, the Holy Family.
The Marriage Within
We know in Truth, that the highest state of human
perfection is that of Christ Jesus, who had the divine
marriage within him, and did not need the form in
the outer to realize the bliss of the highest union,
oneness with God. Yet, for those, whose perception
of this Christ-celibacy is without joy, or not possible
of attainment to them, there is an ideal of home, mar-
riage and the family life that, developed under the
Christ, will lead on to the heights "of the mark of the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
Finding ourselves in the family life, husbands,
wives and parents, let us work out the ideal, where
we are, and fill up the measure of the charge that is
upon us, thus being faithful over the lesser things
("the lower nature") we "shall be made rulers over
the great things" (the treasures of heaven).
The Way of Holiness (Is. 35 :8) for the Family is,
that each member should seek the union with God,
making the One our ideal, our love, even beyond
any earthly love for the dearest mate or child. Then
the earthly father will embody the Fatherhood of
God in all its Wisdom and Universality; the earthly
mother will be the Divine Mother of all; the child
will prove the Ideal Offspring, the joy of its parents
and a glory to its Supreme Parent. Where such a
company gathers, we shall find
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 7
The Ideal Home
Heaven is our true home, and heaven is within
each one of us, therefore the ideal home is found
there first. Every one is desiring a home, a true
place of rest and harmony, peace and beauty. It is
right for us to desire this home, and we find it in
Truth as we find it first in Spirit. Ours is the wor-
ship that is in Spirit and in Truth, the inner and the
outer Reality. We find home in the outer when we
find home in the inner.
The greater part of humanity has been seeking
without before they have turned within, resulting in
disappointment, hands full of things, possessions on
one's back, inharmony, "ideals" that have become
idols, shattered and homeless, all because of seeking
this home without instead of within.
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all the
things after which the nations seek shall be added."
First find the place of Harmony within you, within
yourselves, and then you will find it and make it
wherever you are. This has been the glorious dem-
onstration of womanhood. Let the woman in you
come forth, and the deserts shall blossom as the rose
and the slums shall be as palaces. The home can be
made a most glorious center, where things gather
and express themselves in purity, beauty, comfort
and harmony.
While the mother is the standard about which the
home crystallizes, and she gives it its principal char-
acter, yet every member of the household should be
embued with the spirit of true home-making. This
means unselfishness, self-control, harmony, obedience
and freedom. These are inculcated by the radiance
8 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
of love from the dominant mentality of the family,
which is usually the mother ; and by the silent invoca-
tion of the best in each (because of trust in the God-
self) supplemented by the spoken Word, when it will
fit in most effectually.
It takes the genius of a General to found and sus-
tain a real home, and combined with it must be the
inspiration of a changeless Lover, whose patience,
tact and wisdom never fail. Yet all these are within
the endowment of God to every one of us. And
whoever exercises his genius to make an ideal home
is working towards the establishment of heaven here
on the earth.
The True Marriage
Taken out of its false aspect in the human regard,
which is often light and contemptuous and, again,
merely curious or mercenary, marriage can be
returned to its original holy place, a sacrament.
Trusting this union to God, the great Good of each,
men and women will cease to scheme and fear ; and
thus, mismating through false motives and misunder-
standings will grow less, and "those whom God hath
joined" man cannot keep asunder.
Every one who contemplates marriage should lift
it to the highest place, as the symbol of the union
with God. Then the man will be seen as the Lord,
and all deference will be accorded him as the repre-
sentative of God's fatherhood, the Spirit that ever
moves upon the face of the deep, calling forth its
manifestation.
Though the human husband may not seem worthy
of such deference, if the wife will honor him as God,
either he will change and the ideal Self come forward,
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 9
or he will be removed from her life, not necessarily
by death or divorce, but in some way that is happy
for both.
The woman in marriage is the Soul, the bride of
God, which if a man will receive and revere as God's
own presence, will open him to the Holy Spirit within
himself. And if the wife seem not worthy, this true
attitude of the husband will result the same as in the
case of the husband, described above.
The child that blesses the union is ever the Christ,
the Word of God, come into the world to bless it and
bring it back to its Eden and oneness with God.
In the harmonious and perfect unfoldment of the
child, nothing is so important as these first thoughts
about its parentage. Though all manner of per-
verted ideas have hampered its orderly growth, yet
now these can be corrected, even by one parent hold-
ing to the Highest. "And one shall save a city." For
no one who works by God's law, works alone. For
it is God that accomplishes His own glorious inten-
tions with our children, for they are His children
before they are ours.
The Ideal Father
It is an earthly father's privilege to portray the
heavenly Father in every department of his life.
There is much to be corrected in the old view of
God's fatherhood, that of an austere, superior, even
overbearing, punishing father. This view came from
the belief of the Father as quite separate from the
Mother. But in Christ, the two are one and so
identified are they that their spiritual offices are
interchangeable and the Father, though strong and
protecting, is tender and kind, though just and firm,
10 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
is merciful and sympathetic. The marvelous teach-
ing of Jesus Christ about God, as our eternally for-
giving, heavenly Father, has destroyed to the true
Christian, the delusion of an ever-angry God filling
his cowering subjects with terror and secret hatred.
The parable of "The Prodigal Son," epitomized the
Christ-idea of the true Father which God is, ever
waiting for the true Self in His children to come
forth and give Him opportunity to pour forth His
favors.
The dignity of God-patience, the nobility of faith-
ful service, the love of boon companionship these
are some of the glorious lessons embodied in the office
of a true father, which he can pass on to his children.
They can easily learn to revere God through the daily
exemplar of His presence before their eyes.
The Madonna Mother
To receive your children as from God, each one
holy, an immortal soul, sent of God to bring heaven
to human beings, is to have the mind of Mary, the
virgin Mother of Man. This motherhood is the
coming to light of the universal Mother-God, which
dwells within us all, one with the Father and partak-
ing of both natures, loving but not weak nor partial,
nourishing and providing, the wise Counsellor whose
eternal sympathy guides ever upward, never compro-
mising with the untrue self, yet without condemna-
tion.
As parents regard each other, so will the children
incline, therefore keep the Ideal ever before your eyes
and never call attention to each other's shortcomings.
Again, as you would have your mate regard yourself,
so conduct yourself towards him or her. Children
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 11
have a keen sense of justice, and injustice on the
part of a parent lessens that one's influence. Let
your justice exceed that which is of the world, let it
ever look through things to the One, who is ever in
the right.
Spiritual Eugenics
It is the eternal right of every child to be well-born.
The race conscience is waking to this Truth, hence
the foundation of the new culture of Eugenics, which
means the art and science of being well born. But
the founders are laying a false base for their build-
ing, that of material causation, and, "except the Lord
build the house, they labor in vain that build it."
It is not a matter of flesh and blood that is the key
to good birth, but of true thought and spiritual train-
ing. Though the bodies of parents be under physical
curses, yet if their minds be renewed, not only will
their own bodies be transformed but their new minds
will bless the bodies of their unborn children.
The true laws, that shall mate worthy parents, are
spiritual, not material or sentimental. Love is truly
the greatest cause of marriage Soul-love, not the
mere fascination of body-attraction which is often
engendered, as upon the animal plane, by the hunger
for birth of the waiting creatures. The appetites of
all three, man, woman and the invisible, and as yet
unconceived, child, rush to a vortex, because none of
the three knows how to wait for Soul-guidance, and
they are caught in the maelstrom of their unregen-
erate desires, and a passing fancy, perhaps the result
of mere propinquity, precipitates a union most unfit
and disastrous.
Eugenics to be a successful science must reckon
12 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
with the supreme Father-Mother and also acknowl-
edge the pre-existence of the child as Soul, ancient
and great, intelligent and powerful as any that ever
embodied upon this earth.
When parenthood is taken as a charge from God,
then the office of generating is lifted into a pure and
holy expression, and, in place of shame, comes
delicacy and temperance; in place of secrecy and
ignorance, come the sense of sacredness and mystery
and the soul-communion that is perfect under-
standing.
The Discipline of Marriage
Even the most ideal human union carries an ele-
ment of discipline with it. For, close association with
any one makes that one an instrument to polish us,
"diamond cut diamond." If the experiences of mar-
riage, that have been trials and humiliations, will but
be received as a God-means of refining or strength-
ening or transmuting our character into more worthi-
ness for the companionship of angels, we shall always
get the blessing out of the companionship, and a
minimum of suffering.
God dwells within every human being and the ideal
can be uncovered, even in the worst, by God-love
working through the heart of another human being.
The family was formed and hallowed for this purpose
and to this end, and the fact, that the door of life was
opened to let a soul into this earth, is a sign that such
is a candidate for the honor of Perfection. As long
as a human being lives on this earth, there is a chance
here for redemption, and each soul committed to our
charge is a glorious opportunity to prove the immor-
tal and heavenly presence of God in that flesh.
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 13
Let each husband reverence and exalt his wife to
the highest place that he can give her in his ideals of
the Perfect Woman which is the divine feminine of
God.
And let every woman have a holy respect for her
husband, and hold faithfully to the ideal, as the real
of him, seeing the One, that surely abides there,
which is the divine masculine of God.
And let every child revere and honor his parents,
as the embodiment of his Father-Mother, God.
So shall the Holy Family be again manifest on
earth, and its home "a little heaven" here below.
II.
The Prospective Mother
Motherhood, a Sacred Office
IHILD unfoldment means mother unfold-
ment, the two taking place simultaneously
when all things proceed in an orderly way.
And one of the first instructions, which a
mother should receive from her Divine
Self, is as to the greatness and holiness of her posi-
tion. Called to take charge of an immortal Soul, on
its way proving its Godhood ! What more honorable
trust in God's world ?
Motherhood is the expression of the protecting,
nourishing, loving, creating power of God, which is
without beginning and without end, eternal, divine
Motherhood, the tender, loving, forgiving, excusing,
protecting Spirit, that omits no measures for the
salvation of its children, "loving to the end," until the
beloved shall come to its place, and be what it was
in the beginning.
It is because God is the Great Mother that we
believe in universal salvation even of those who
seem to be the lowest and farthest from the Kingdom.
Though the mother of the earth "may forsake her
children, yet I will not forsake thee," says our
Mother-God. The perfect love of the human mother
cannot touch the hem of the garment of the love of
God, which knows nothing impossible, and never
fails in its desires for the salvation of its beloved
children.
14
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 15
National Respect for Mothers
It is a sign of the spiritual unfoldment of nations,
to have a respect for woman and especially for moth-
erhood. The recognition of the Divine Feminine in
God hallows womanhood and, through her, the child
that she gives to the world.
Every prospective mother should receive a blessing
from every one that beholds her, a prayer for her
safety when passing through the ordeal that lies
before her, and the tenderest and holiest considera-
tion for the little one that has been sent of God to
manifest through her.
National consideration for the welfare of mothers
is becoming more evident daily, for motherhood is a
national benefaction. This is instanced in the pro-
visions that are made to relieve her cares in rearing
her babes: the summer nurseries, the free dispen-
saries, examinations, lectures, food to lessen infantile
mortality. And it will not be long before Mothers'
Pensions will be in every advanced government. It
is not too much for any State to provide pensions for
this office, that is greater than that of any soldier in
the land, for the mother is constructive and the
soldier is destructive. She contributes to life and
the soldier takes life. Therefore, if the soldiers
should be pensioned, mothers should have a greater
pension.
Unwilling Mothers
We know that there are many unwilling mothers
as there are many unwilling soldiers and for the
same reason, for it is fear at the root, that is the
cause of this unwillingness, and selfishness. Almost
every normal woman has maternal love and the child
is the outpicturing of this love in her. Fortunately,
16 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
the new light upon Christ-healing and deliverance
from the old curse of painful child-bearing is rapidly
removing that fear. And there is no woman in the
Truth who expects to enter into marriage who should
refuse motherhood on account of such fears.
We have learned that the function of the uterus
should be as harmonious and painless as any other
large muscle of the body, and all the re-adjustments
of the organs, necessary to permit this office to be
fulfilled, should be as normal and easy, as in the per-
formance of any other duty.
Mothers in Truth are the best custodians for those
seeking to come into this world, and no more useful
career upon the material plane can be planned, than
to be a "mother in Israel," receiving as many little
ones from God as possible, and bringing them up in
the knowledge of Truth and to live the life of Jesus
Christ.
A word here for those women who long for chil-
dren but who do not have them. Consecrate your-
selves and your lives to God, trusting all to God and,
like Sarah and Hannah of old, you shall become the
mother of one, who will be a great power for good
on this earth. Nevertheless it may be that you are
finished with bringing forth after the flesh, and yours
must be the life of regeneration, and your children,
spiritual perhaps thousands, whom you will bring
into the Truth.
The Education of Mothers
Once Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes was asked as to
when a child's education should begin and he replied,
in his terse and witty way, that it should "begin one
hundred years before it was born." That is, its
ancestors, teachers, nurses and all that shall con-
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 17
tribute to its being, physical, mental or moral, should
be rightly trained in the understanding of the laws
of life.
Thus again is the welfare of the unborn child
expressed in terms of universal welfare, and you
who may be reading these words with interest, even
though you have no children, may know that you are
contributing, by your study of these lessons, to gen-
erations that shall live one hundred years hence.
The past we cannot touch, so let us give all atten-
tion to the present, to the young men and women
who are looking forward to fatherhood and mother-
hood, even though as yet unmarried.
The spiritually-minded of the two most influential,
religious races in the world, the Hebrews and the
Hindus, look upon parenthood as a sacrament and
contemplate it as a holy privilege, and many are the
prayers and other preparations, to receive the Soul
appointed them from God.
In the new devotees of the true God, the office is to
be no less a sacred consciousness. Before the mar-
riage of the two whose lives are about to be made one,
there should be a clear understanding and agreement,
to respect each other's views of the marital relation-
ship and to exercise self-control, even as a blessing
with which to endow their children.
For it is not as a heritage of the flesh, that one
passes spiritual powers to one's offspring but through
the power of thought by which the Truth is given
them.
As soon as a mother has conceived, she can begin
to talk to the Soul of her child and tell it of its divine
origin.
18 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
Every Child Is a Great Soul
In its true being, every child is as wise as the
wisest that ever lived on this earth. But its wisdom
is spiritual, not material. As Soul, it is as wise as
its parents and if the latter would learn to talk
silently, yes, and audibly to their children's Souls,
they would develop the most wonderful and charm-
ing companionship with them, and their remarks and
conclusions and memories would often be most
enlightening. The wisdom of the parents as to this
relative plane the knowledge that comes from expe-
rience is one of the advantages they can give their
children; to show them how to express their Souls
through their flesh and in their relationships with
their world and its people.
But the instruction must begin with a conscious-
ness of oneness, Soul with Soul. As a prospective
mother has many times talked to herself so should
she learn to talk to that new self, so near her heart,
speaking to it not as a babe, or one who is ignorant,
but as the very Angel of His Presence (Matt. 18 :10) .
As a rule, children grow away from this Angel-
memory because of the materialism, sensuality and
ignorance of their instructors. Parents can keep
the fleshly veils of their children pure and transpar-
ent through the years, and so help them to retain
much of their original spirituality.
A prenatal course of education in Truth can be
given by a mother to her coming child by reading to
it some good text-book on Truth.* A lesson from the
*Such as Maternity Treatments by Miss Rix, 10 cts.;
Primary Lessons in Christian Living and Healing, by Mrs.
Militz, paper, 60 cts.; cloth, $1.25; Christian Mind Healing, by
Miss Rix, $1.00.
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 19
Bible should be read daily and a silent treatment that
they may begin early to exercise self-control.
The Pre-existence of Each Child
The Scripture teaches us that its prophets lived
and were intelligent beings before they were born,
and even before they were conceived. No one, who
believes in Jesus Christ, doubts that he lived before
he came to Mary. "Before Abraham was, I am," he
said (John 8: 58).
Jeremiah the prophet says that the Lord told him,
that before he was conceived, He knew him and
ordained him to his ministry (Jeremiah 1:5).
"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before
thou earnest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee and I
ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."
John the Baptist leaped in his mother's womb
when the Virgin Mary saluted Elizabeth, as we read,
Luke 1 :41 to 44 :
"And it came to pass, that, when Elizabeth heard the
salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Eliza-
beth was filled with the Holy Ghost;
And she spake with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou
among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord
should come to me?
For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in
mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy."
And the great King Solomon speaks of his own
pre-existence, in the Apocryphal Old Testament
(Wisdom of Solomon 8:20), "Yea, rather, being
good, I came into a body undefiled."
It is a very old teaching, that children have lived
before, and that this is not the first body that they
have had. The poet Wordsworth writes of it under
the heading:
20 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY.
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our Life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar.
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory, do we come
From God, who is our Home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy.
The Unborn Child's Influence
Much has been said of the influence of mothers
over their unborn children, and much more can be
said about it and how to make it of the very best.
But little or nothing has been said about the influence
of the child upon its prospective mother.
Many a pregnant woman has been filled with won-
der at her state of mind during the pregnancy.
Perhaps it has been unusually spiritual, poised and
exalted or, on the other hand, she has been sur-
prised at her aggressiveness, loss of temper, untrue
thoughts, strange tastes, unaccountable hatreds, etc.
Her friends have dismissed it with a light "0, it's
your condition, my dear !" ascribing her soul-torture
to material causation and looking no further.
Whereas, the mother has "taken on" herself
certain former traits belonging to her child, some
beautiful, some undesirable; the former are to be
established upon an everlasting basis, the latter
redeemed.
If such a mother is conscientious and will not yield
to the miserable suggestions that arise, then, in spite
of these prenatal influences, her child will be sweet
and pure and lovely. For the mother and the child
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 21
can work out much during the nine months of inti-
mate association. Every earthly child has something
to work out that does not belong to the True Self,
and fortunate is that child whose mother begins early
to teach it self-control.
Prenatal Training
The mothers of ancient Greece believed so strongly
in the influence of what they looked upon, to deter-
mine the form of their unborn babes, that they gazed
for hours upon beautiful statues and other objects of
art, to give their children grace and beauty of body.
The mother in Truth, who knows the influence of
mind, should devote all her thoughts and feelings
daily to the highest, spiritual ideals, that the coming
child may be thoroughly imbued with Truth, and so
have a noble foundation for a life, all beautiful both
within and without.
The little one brings characteristics of its own
from a previous existence, which are to be put into
the crucible of experience for remolding, or to be
overshadowed by Truth, to be redeemed. If the
latter is the way that its happy feet shall tread, then
its life will have a minimum of suffering and a maxi-
mum of joy. But if that little one can learn only by
experience, its way will be hard indeed.
Silently the babe can be taught Truth, its soul
drinking it in and its mind accepting cool, patient
reasoning, even when its anger flames up and its
screams are deafening.
Woman's Spiritual Leadership
"It is the ever-womanly that leads us on," said the
poet Goethe, and every great man has acknowledged
the part that some good woman has had in his suc-
cess, oftenest his mother.
22 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
Children are so mouldable even the worst,
although it may require more skill, love and inspira-
tion with them than with others. But with the
divine means at hand, no mother need ever be dis-
couraged, but rather, she should become the more
earnest and zealous, the more difficulties the problem
presents.
Children that seem hardest to guide in their early
years often make the finest of men and women. The
number of years that a mother can train a child, as a
mother, are only about fifteen. When boys and girls
have reached that age, they take the reins into their
own hands and what aid their mother can be to them
after that must be as a beloved companion.
Fortunate that mother who has brought to her
child the realization of her wisdom and her desira-
bility as an associate, long before adolescence, for
then there can be a fine comradeship between them
all the days of their life.
mother! begin early to accept your child as an
Angel direct from God, and to disregard its shadow
side, many times counting it as nothing; or when
considering it, to put it into its place as the unreal
and, at most, only an indicator of what is to be
accentuated in the child, the opposite virtue that it
has come this time to bring into full manifestation.
So shall the earthly mother's complete joy be yours,
to which shall be added the joy of your Higher Self,
as you hear the welcome of the Lord of us all,
"Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast
been faithful over a few things, I will make thee
ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of
thy Lord."
III.
Co-operation Between Parents and Children
Parents' First Work
T must be borne well in mind by parents,
during all the years that their children are
developing, that they themselves are their
own first work. Only those fathers and
mothers, who are faithfully seeking to
perfect themselves, can bring forth the perfection
that is in their children.
We teach more by the silent radiance of our habit-
ual thoughts and feelings than by our words. If pur
secret nature is not consistent with our instruction,
children will know it, for most of them are sensitive
to the unseen forces, and the result may be heedless-
ness to the parents' commands, if not willful dis-
obedience.
The work, which a faithful student of Truth gives
to the inner life, causes the mind to be alert and keen
to perceive the delicate interiors of children where lie
the roots of all their permanent habits. Here also
are found the innocent intentions of many mistaken
attitudes and actions. For children do and say
things that look like stealing, lying and swearing and
which have shocked parents who, "judging after the
appearance and not judging righteous judgment,"
feel that they have criminals for their offspring, to
their shame and humiliation. And sometimes cruel
punishment is dealt to the innocent culprits, whose
hearts were right and who can make no connection
between their deed and the harsh treatment, and the
24 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
only impression that remains is of the injustice and
malevolence of their parent, with an estrangement
that lasts throughout their earthly life.
Very early in the communion between parents and
children, must this soul-knowledge be established.
All must meditate upon the divine origin and nature
of humanity, often reminding one another silently
and audibly, of the True Self.
Self-Knowledge and Self-Control
The parent who has true self-respect through
revering his own spiritual nature and God-origin,
will be respected and honored by his children with-
out demanding deference from them. Nothing is of
greater delight to humanity than to have a love for
another that is mingled with awe and mystery. No
more precious gift can come from one human being
to another than such a love, and parents can retain
that love forever if they but keep the goal of the
Divine Life before them, and at all times exercise
self-control.
It is the Spirit within us that gives us the true
knowledge of ourselves and the power to rule our-
selves, and this same Spirit is within the child, to
teach it and to give it self-mastery.
The child can learn early to distinguish between
the false self, or "naughty one," and the true or
better self, God's Child, and to joy in the sunshine of
mother's approval and father's companionship, when-
ever that self is the only one expressing. Yet there
must often be great, and even inspired, skill on the
part of the parent, to keep these free souls from feel-
ing themselves leashed and in consequence becoming
rebellious against the conventions and forms of too
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 25
strict a religious training. The same religious terms
should not be repeated too often and the teachings
should always be as simple and natural as possible.
The Equality Between Parents and Children
Bearing ever in mind that as Soul, the child is ever
the equal of its parent, the latter can establish that
perfect understanding with his child that will make
them comrades for life. Your superiority in the
matter of experience, you will understand as a stu-
dent of Truth, is not a real superiority, yet it can be
of advantage to your child especially in guiding him
as to what to avoid. A wise parent can so bring
forth Truth in a child, as to make its earth-life full
of experiences in good but with few, of an evil nature.
While you may try to save your little one much
experience, yet you may discover in it very early, a
passion for trying things for itself. Then let such
enter into experiences under your supervision, hav-
ing first told them of what they may find that is
undesirable in their experiment.
Herbert Spencer counsels parents not to be too
hasty in saving their children from the fruits of
disobedience, when the result will not be very harm-
ful to them.
Thus if a child persists in putting its finger in the
candle-flame, after it has been told that it is not best,
that child will not profit by your advice ; therefore do
not move the candle away but let it put its finger in
the flame. You may not impress it with the burning
power of the flame that is not necessary but it will
be impressed with the desirability of accepting
instruction from the one that knows, instead of learn-
ing by experience.
26 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
Happy is the man who learns in his childhood, that
Truth itself can teach us all things and that experi-
ence is a hard teacher, a taskmaster, from which we
are all to be delivered.
True Yoke-Fellows in Christ
We are all upon this earth for one true purpose, to
bring eternal happiness to our fellow-beings and be
a glory to our Source. This truth should be told
our little ones through stories from the Bible such as
that about little Samuel; the little Hebrew maid
through whom Naaman, the leper, was healed ; young
David and his conquest of Goliath, and young Daniel
who refused the king's food because he would master
his appetites ; the boy Jesus, and the children whom
he, when a man, raised from the dead. One Truth-
mother made it a practice to tell her children these
stories whenever she gave them their evening bath.
Another tells them to her little ones as their bed-time
stories.
As yoke-fellows with their parents in the same
cause, that is, to establish heaven on the earth, chil-
dren can learn to send out the message of healing to
individuals and to the whole world. Thus they can
begin their ministry that they were sent by God to
bless the world with, while yet their years are few.
The aspiration to follow Jesus all the way can be
nourished, and the faith, that will "do the same
works" that Jesus did, be established. The old ambi-
tions will be supplemented by the new and true
aspirations, and the name and the fame, that the
worldly mind seeks, shall be resolved into the eager
desire to please God, alone, and glorify His presence
here on the earth.
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 27
If one's child rebels against religious training and
it does not come with ease and naturalness between
parents and child, then the silent way is to be used.
Perhaps there is an old memory of religion as a bond-
age, hypocrisy, tyranny and cruel martyrdom, and
the child's whole nature feels revulsion toward its
forms and even the wording. Be patient, good father
and mother ! pray faithfully, and the light will come
that shall be welcome to your child, and with it you
can lay the foundation of a true spiritual life.
Firmness Without Domineering
Most children are open to reason, although desire
is so strong as to make some seem passionately resist-
ant to reasoning. It is wise to make few rules.
At all times, parents should be slow about giving
orders or making rules, but when what has been
ordered has received one's own inner endorsement,
the parent should be firm as a rock.
If, on the other hand, a command has been given
hastily, or not well considered, and there is a sense
that it should be taken back, let a parent not hesitate
to set the order aside, even with an apology or
explanation.
One need not fear that a child will form false
conclusions about its parent. Children understand
and love equity and kindness, and are not so apt to be
"spoiled" by leniency as by injustice and thought-
lessness.
The old-fashioned idea that because "I say so," an
elder should be obeyed is passing away through the
youthful consciousness of the present age. The
sharp lines between old and young are being erased,
with greater gain than loss, although in this transi-
28 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
tion time, the respect and courtesies of the young
toward their elders seem sadly missing. But let us
not fear, for love is increasing, and, in reality, we
are all taking a new base, and a new chivalry shall
come to us whose foundations will not be fear and
convention, but spirit and love.
Good Manners and Politeness
Be what you would have your child to be. Ways
of courtesy and even forms of politeness are taught
best by example, although some gentle and thoughtful
rules of conduct must be described, the reasons given
and the practice illustrated at times especially set
aside to that training.
The parent who will be watchful not to interrupt
his son, without a word of apology; who will never
forget to thank him for an attention expressed ; who
will never willingly humiliate him before others, will
teach many of the small kindnesses of life without a
word. The true gentleman is truly of the heart a
gentle man, because spiritual and a Christian.
In Japan, sometimes called "the children's para-
dise," the tiny Japanese learn gentle manners with
but few words from their parents. Children are
reverenced in Japan and families delight to welcome
every new comer to the household. In consequence
they bloom under such love, and are obedient and
deferential and take upon themselves the pretty
graces of oriental etiquette with little if any prompt-
ing from their parents.
Children's Questions
The old beliefs that children acquire knowledge
from without, and that, by words only, can most
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 29
information be conveyed, are the cause of the much
questioning on the part of the child.
The Truth, that an understanding of all things,
those material as well as spiritual, can spring from
within, opens up a child's interiors in a way most
happy and enlightening to the parent that compan-
ions it.
Practice meeting the "Whys" of a young mind
with a silent "You know," speaking of its Divine
Mind, the omniscient One.
Then ask him to give his idea ; never laugh at the
unusual and original opinions unless, of course, the
child's humor is evident. But encourage children's
expressing themselves, and lead their fancies on to
facts, and often ponder their utterances, like another
Mary, in your heart.
We should give accurate replies to their questions
as far as possible, and if puzzled ourselves, we can
often reply silently with the absolute truth, which
can be heard by the child's heart with a result of
satisfaction and thoughtfulness, that will please and
often amaze us.
Of Such Is the Kingdom of God
All the time given to the unfoldment of children
is contributed to our own return to childlikeness,
which must be, that we may enter into the kingdom
of heaven to abide forever. An endeavor to see with
their innocent eyes, to view life with their guileless
perception, brings us to our own Christ simplicity
and purity. Also it helps us to a free and happy
intercourse with children. We discover by talking to
their souls, that they understand truth regardless
of the language, the long and unfamiliar words
30 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
we use; also when by this same soul-power, we see
things from the child's view-point, a communion is
set up that requires few words, only the language of
the soul.
Then the Christ within blesses little children, tak-
ing them out from under the curse of the dark past,
that has held the race back so long.
When Jesus had told some of the deep truths of
marriage, giving a holy light as to the right relation-
ship between men and women and their possible free-
dom from sex-appetite, his words removed the curse
from women and children, so that the mothers
pressed their children upon the Master to bless them.
Jesus' immediate disciples tried to prevent the
coming of the little ones. In their eyes, children were
still under the curse, the offspring of sin and not
ready for the Master's message. But Jesus sweeps
aside these old views, and declares children to be in
the van of the host that leads us into the heavenly
consciousness.
If in your family or environment, there are men
and women who, like those disciples, disapprove of
children, thinking that they should "be seen and not
heard" and in many ways would discipline them as
you would not, such may begin to illustrate to the
young natures what "taking up the cross" means,
returning kindness for meanness, making nothing of
evil, doing good to those that hate you, and the other
precepts in the great "Sermon on the Mount."
By sympathy and freedom from blaming, or pass-
ing harsh judgment upon the peccadillos of youth, a
father or mother can so win the confidence of the
growing boys and girls, that they will tell their
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 31
parent all that is going on in their lives. The young
often feel that they must exploit life, and if their
natural guardian refrains from expressing adverse
opinions, or fears of serious consequences, or old-
fashioned notions in other words will exercise the
magic art of keeping still, both within and without,
great can be their influence when their counsel is
sought, and their comfort and their sympathy will be
most welcome.
In the Divine Sight, we are all of one age, children
of the same Parent, who has not hesitated to let us
take "the portion of goods that falleth" to us and go
on "a journey into a far country," knowing that we
shall all yet return satisfied, never again to leave our
Father's house.
IV.
The Child's Query
Where Did I Come From?
|NE of the most interesting studies in scien-
tific psychology is the mental development
of a babe, as it advances from its first
stage of consciousness, which it holds in
^common with all sentient beings, to its
consciousness of itself when it begins to reflect
upon itself.
As a clear spring of water may run in a tiny
thread, alone, for some distance, so it is with the
simple consciousness of a new human being. But
later, other streams join it, and it is then that reflec-
tion upon itself makes this consciousness appear
more or less complex, and here it is that the guardian
of the streamlet has the privilege of keeping its
waters pure and limpid, if she, or he, knows the
nature of the child, and how best to meet all its needs,
spiritual, mental and physical.
At first the child refers to itself in the third per-
son "Bobby wants this" or "Take Baby up," and so
forth; then it refers to itself as "me," and finally
it is "I."
When this stage is reached, then come the ques-
tions about this wonderful beings that is in its posses-
sion, and the most important of all is, "Where did I
come from?"
When First the Query Is Made
It is a sacred moment when first that little query
is made. Fortunate the parent who hears it, if she
32
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 33
realizes that not yet have the pure ears of her little
one been touched by the breath of untrue report, but
they are open to the fairest presentation of the
mystic story.
How false it is to brush a child aside with a fable,
a lie or an impatient or weak deferring of the infor-
mation !
As soon as a child asks the question about its own
origin, or that of the little ones, that have come so
unexpectedly and mysteriously into its life, it is ready
for the answer. If the moment is not auspicious in
which to tell the story, then name a quiet hour when
you know there will be no interruption and satisfy
them with the assurance that then you will tell them
all about it.
Divide "our story" into two parts, the first to be
about the origin of the soul, the second about the
source of the body. Or better still, make it a bed-
time story, to be told many nights in succession, as
long as there is something interesting to tell about
the Real Self and the Little House in which it lives.
The Angel, Ever in Heaven
The first thing to describe to your little pupil is the
place and state in which he lived before he came to
this earth, or became visible to the eyes of those that
love him.
The parent who knows the divine origin of his
child, that it lived before its body was conceived and
born, may well embrace the opportunity to describe
the Real Self of his child to the little listener, so that
it will never forget its true nature.
To tell it how it lived with its heavenly Father, as
an angel "in heaven their angels do always behold
34 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
the face of my Father which is in heaven" (Matt.
18:10) that that is its Real Self which is wise and
good, loving and pure, unselfish and kind; that
heaven is all about us, and we see it while our eyes
are pure ; that it has a center in our heart, and our
angel is in our good thinking and our good feelings.
This is to open a spiritual "Arabian Nights' Enter-
tainment" of endless love-tales between a mother and
her child.
In this instruction is laid the foundation of the
successful life of the Spirit. For the child to see
that its angel-self is always good and cannot be other-
wise, is to acquire a power of discrimination between
the good One and the bad child, and to work out its
own salvation. For each human being has come into
this world to embody Happiness, God's own Self, in
the flesh, and there are certain errors or forms of
ignorance which, like weeds, may seem to grow vig-
orously under the same Sun of Truth, that causes the
Flowers of Immortality to bloom.
And these weeds must be known as weeds the
naughty thoughts, words and deeds while they are
yet small, that they may not fruit as sins and bring
on their miserable harvest of disease, poverty and
death.
The Innocence That Is Ignorance
It is possible for every child to pass from a state of
innocence, which depends upon ignorance in order
to remain intact, to a state of innocence that has the
Christ-knowledge as its foundation and therefore is
established forever.
The purity of Adam and Eve before the serpent-
error insinuated itself into their consciousness, is the
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 35
purity of the little child, untried and unproven a
negative innocence. But when purity is established
upon the principle of the Christ-Truth (not that tree-
of-good-and-evil knowledge) then all that is beauti-
ful, holy, sweet, noble and strong in Innocence is
retained, and it passes from its weak, naked and
untried negative, to its strong, glorified and proven-
positive in Christ.
Most members of the human race, who have come
to their salvation, have not been able to pass from
the negative innocence to the positive innocence with-
out an interim of struggle and plunging through the
dark waters of experience in evil. It is from this
"forty years wandering in the wilderness" that the
Christ came to save us. Therefore, if the Truth is
given to our children early, they can be saved from
these agonies through which their ignorant ancestors
have had to pass.
Without Sin or Shame
Little ones in their simplicity are modest in the
truest sense of the word, which is non-assertion of
the ego, and this willingness "to stay in the back-
ground," making their little personalities a screen
upon which the picture of their true Self can be por-
trayed, prepares them to wear their clothes, as
curtains fall over a picture, without sense of vanity
or shame.
Instead of inculcating shame as a reason for
covering the body, the idea of the sacredness of cer-
tain parts should be presented. There is an innate
understanding with every soul of the Holy of Holies,
and the very words "Pure and clean" become as
guarding angels to keep the Way of Life. Never
36 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
should the thought of shame be put into a child's
mind as to any part of its body.
The Origin of the Body
Often, when the story of where "I" came from has
been told, it is satisfying and productive of so much
meditation, as to put the question of the source of the
form quite into the back-ground, where it belongs.
But some mentalities work very quickly, and the
knowledge-hunger will soon be in evidence again.
Then the happiest way to describe the mystery is to
begin with the known, and, through comparison,
present the unknown.
The child learns early to observe the hatching of
chickens and birds, and a description of how the
little bird lies in the egg, tucked away in its nest,
while the mother-bird warms it until it is ready to
hatch out, can easily explain the coming of the babe.
"The birds have their nests in the trees," mother
says, as "Our Story" unrolls, "but the nest, where the
baby lies, is within its mother under her heart."
Then can follow the account of the long months
that that heart loves the little babe and warms it
while it grows.
"And what mother eats feeds the little babe too;
and it thinks with her and is happy when she is, and
day after day, it lives her life, and loves with her,
until at last God makes a way and little baby is no
longer hidden, but comes to mother's arms."
So simply and purely can the tale be told, that
though it may be the wonderment of a life-time,
there is never a sorrow nor a shame associated with
it, but only a greater love and reverence for the
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 37
mother that, by the power of God, gave it life and its
good body.
It Is "Our Story"
It is wisdom to let the little one know that it is a
story to be talked over "just between ourselves," and
that anything that he, or she, wishes to know, to come
to mother, who can always tell the truth about it.
One little boy overheard his playmates discussing
these vital matters, and said to them (he reported the
facts to his mother) :
"You fellows don't know anything what you're
talking about! It isn't that way at all."
"Well, you tell us about it then !" they replied.
"No ! I'll not !" he said. "You had better go home
and ask your mothers about it !"
"And, mother," he continued, "they were so ignor-
ant and said they didn't dare to ask their mothers."
How glad that mother was that she had told her
son all. She had not hesitated to tell him of the
awful agony through which she had passed to give
him life, and to let him know that this was the price
that every mother paid. It made the little fellow
suffer, but a manliness and an awe came upon him as
he looked at her with new eyes, and told her how he
should always love and cherish her for what she had
done for him.
This mother had not learned the Truth of the pos-
sibility of painless child-bearing, and this is one
advantage that we have in giving the story to our
children, thus laying the foundation for a generation
that shall be free from fear and danger in its bring-
ing forth.
It is best not to fill the mind of youth with too many
38 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
details of the process of impregnation and gestation.
The story is so great, that the simpler it is presented
at first the better.
The Power of a Mother's Prayers
The early years of a human life carry the primitive
tendencies, and therefore may seem open to unmoral
influences, a kind of careless freedom that is not
necessarily immoral, yet, if the child be neglected,
liable to bring to it harmful consequences.
Many of the diseases of children spring from an
unchaste atmosphere. The higher standard of living
and greater cleanness in thinking will result in
reducing the numbers in the statistics of infantile
mortality.
Mothers must learn the significance of the intima-
tions that spring up within them concerning danger
which threatens their children. Instead of interpret-
ing such impressions to mean that the children must
be protected as to their outer health only, let us learn
to lift up a prayer for the defense and protection of
the child's inner nature, as well as the outer.
By learning to refer every form of anxiety for
one's children to the Spirit, and declaring its protec-
tion, a mother can be led to the knowledge of the way
to save her child from many mistakes.
Thus a mother, who had a knowledge of Truth,
found herself continually impressed to keep an eye
upon her little boy, who was about seven years old.
As he was normally well (although at times very
nervous and backward in school), she wondered at
these impressions. But she did not put these feelings
aside with a sense of annoyance, as she might have
done once. Each time she silently sent the word of
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 39
God's protecting presence to little Robert. One
morning, like a thunderclap, came the inner Voice,
"Go and find Robert quickly." She dropped her
housework and hastened, to discover her boy in a
self-destructive practice that she had not dreamed
possible to her innocent baby. The knowledge was
a shock, but she took the case to a healer, and
together they worked until, by the power of Truth,
the boy was set free from a habit that has wrecked
the lives of many.
Another, who was the mother of five very lively
boys, was one morning suddenly impressed with the
feeling that one of her boys was in great need of
help whether it was moral, mental or physical she
could not tell. But she had grown familiar with
these knocks upon the door of her heart from the
angel-guardians of her boys. She dropped on her
knees and prayed God to protect her boy until there
came a sense of- relief to her, and she knew the boy
was safe.
About half an hour after this prayer, her young
son, eight years old, came home looking like a
drowned rat. He had been playing on the shore of
the bay and had found an old boat lying at the edge
of the water, had pushed it off, climbed into it and
had rowed from the shore to deep water, when sud-
denly the boat filled and he went down.
"Mamma," he said, "I went down and came up
twice, and the last time I called to you with all my
might, and I didn't go down any more. And I don't
know how I got to the shore."
As the little fellow could not swim, he might well
wonder. But his mother knew.
40 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
Strength and Beauty in the Pure Life
At the time instruction is being given the young
boy and girl, as to their procreative powers, which
should begin at about the time of maturing the age
of twelve is not too early ideals of the pure life
should be presented also.
Youth is ambitious to be strong and beautiful, and
parents should gather material to show "the strength
of a clean life" and the beauty, that only remains
where purity abides, the shining hair, the clear-cut
features, the radiant complexion, the crystal eye.
Many of our young people are ready for the life of
regeneration and do not care to enter into generation.
Not knowing any but the carnal view of the relation-
ship of the sexes in marriage, they have little desire
to marry. They do not understand themselves nor
are they understood by their people. Later, they
assume the marital relations to find themselves most
unhappy and expressing their regretful "I never
should have married."
When a sweet and candid companionship exists
between parents and their children, all the detail of
the ideal marriage can be presented, without touch-
ing the dark side of the lawless lives of the unclean,
which is so repulsive to minds that have been nur-
tured in a clean moral atmosphere.
There are youthful hearts and minds to whom all
these things are as nothing, and it is well that we do
not impress them with the horror of the unchaste.
For we remember the words of Paul to the Romans :
"I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that
there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that
esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is
unclean" (Rom. 14:14).
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 41
And again,
"Unto the pure all things are pure."
And the words of Jesus,
"Behold, all things are clean unto you."
We bear in mind, that the Spirit is teaching our
children the Way of Life, that turns neither to the
right nor to the left, but ever mounts up to God, and
therefore we can abandon them to His guidance and
protection, believing with Milton that,
"So dear to heaven is saintly chastity,
That when a soul is found sincerely so,
A thousand liveried angels lackey her,
Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt."
V.
Healing Children
Children Easy to Heal
[ERE are no more responsive patients to
the word of Truth, that brings health,
than little children. For the errors that
lie back of their diseases have little root in
their own mentality, being principally
reflections from the false thinking of others.
The same general procedure that is followed in the
treatment of adults will apply to the healing of chil-
dren. Therefore those who would be proficient
should study the lessons given in the text-books of
Christian healing.*
The soul of the child, being great and wise with
the wisdom of God, can hear the message of Truth
just as readily as the soul of the adult. Jesus, who
understood human nature perfectly, welcomed the
little children and gave them special blessings of
healing and spiritual endowment.
"Suffer the little children to come unto me and
forbid them not : for of such is the kingdom of God.
And he took them in his arms, and put his hands
upon them, and blessed them." Mark 10 :14, 16.
Parents to Be Treated First
In almost every case of illness in children, there is
some one who is anxious and fearful about them, and
*An excellent help is the hand-book, The Way to Heal (25
cts. a copy) , especially when used in conjunction with Mrs.
Militz' "Christian Living and Healing"
42
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 43
this is the first thing that must receive the attention
of the healer.
For children are like little mirrors of those they
love and look to for comfort and sustenance. They
reflect very quickly any strong feeling or state of
mind on the part of a dear parent or guardian, even
though the feelings have been hidden from the outer
senses, and no one has spoken about them.
How often a mother makes remarks like,
"O, troubles never come singly! I thought I had
enough to bear and now the baby is sick !"
She does not know that it is the very trouble that
is haunting her that lies at the root of the baby's
fever. And usually it is the tenderest child, the deli-
cate one, the most negative, though not necessarily
the youngest, of all the children, the mother's spe-
cial care, that is most easily affected. That parent
must rise above her trouble and return to the peace
of soul that is our only true state, and ever remain
in that secret place, if she would rear her little ones
in a healthy mind-sphere, which is more important
than a sanitary atmosphere.
Children to Reflect Only Good
Yet, it is possible, even before a parent or guar-
dian has reached that place of true self-control, to
put a child into that holy consciousness, wherein it
shall not reflect aught but the good, but shall become
wholly immune to evil suggestion. Here is not only
the key to physical health but also to moral sound-
ness.
It is not by keeping a child out of the world that
it can be best protected. Rather let the young go
forth, enfolded in the aura of its own holy Self-
44 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
hood, ''in the world but not of it," and nothing can
contaminate nor infect such a child. Associating
with those who seem unclean and unfit for com-
panionship, instead of catching their impurity, that
child will have a purity so positive that it will cleanse
its comrades and be a power of God to regenerate
its times.
So, if you observe that your unhappiness, finan-
cial worriment or marital troubles are beginning to
picture upon your child, painful and feverish condi-
tions, begin to hold the little one in the Christ pres-
ence, surrounded as in a fortress by the All-Good
and reflecting only the Real which is the Good, which
is all there ever is to reflect, all else being sheer
nothingness.
Infections and "Children's Diseases"
One of the most vicious errors that has ever been
saddled upon suffering humanity by its own self-
hypnotism, is the belief that certain diseases are
natural to children. The lie goes back into "the
dark ages," that mumps and measles and whooping-
cough must be experienced by every child, that if he
escapes them in childhood, they will come upon him
in later life with liability of very serious results.
With this distorted view, parents have exposed
children to contagion with supine yielding to what
they feel to be inevitable, even planning that they
shall have certain diseases "the best time of the
year" so as "to get over it and be done with it."
Filled with panic at the rumor that diphtheria,
scarlet fever or infantile paralysis is in the neigh-
borhood, poor, ignorant fathers and mothers, by
their very fears, open the doors to the dreaded foes.
Yet they hold the means of their child's defense in
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 45
their own mind, and instantly they should use their
fears as the railway engineer uses the red flag that
he sees waving ahead of his train. It does not para-
lyze him, but it makes him act at once.
When Fear Seizes a Parent
The instant a fearful thought arises in the heart
or mind, turn to the Truth of the omnipresence of
God, the Almighty Good of your child. Think of
the Health, the Life, the perfect Christ-being that
fills and surrounds your child until there comes to
you a sweet assurance of its safety; and though the
miserable suggestions of danger return again and
again, and even symptoms of the disease begin to
show, keep returning yourself to the true faith until
the false condition succumbs before the Truth you
persistently voice in the silent deeps of your watch-
ful soul.
Let no one into the presence of your child that
will think and suggest alarming thoughts. This is
one reason why the materialistic physician should
be kept far from your children. If a doctor must
be called in because of the demand of the other par-
ent, then choose a spiritual man or woman who will
not be skeptical as to the power of true thought.
Many of the most advanced physicians are heart
and hand with spiritual healers ; seek them, not the
spiritually-ignorant and bigoted doctors.
But best of all, keep to the Great Physician, use
no materia medica, trust in the Christ-word as your
all-sufficiency. If there are broken bones or cut
arteries, a surgeon's skill may be a good aid, but
even here, the Truth has been proved wholly able to
replace and rebind the broken places, and to heal
46 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
quickly "by first intention," that is, from the inmost,
out, and without fever.
The healer who is called in to bless the little child,
after removing the fears of the parents, and declar-
ing the Truth of the child's freedom from false re-
flection, must systematically heal the parents of the
errors that have made the mental air of the home
poisonous.
The Errors in a Child's Mentality
If all these things are set in order and the case is
not finished, then the healer may discover by a men-
tal diagnosis that the child itself has some special
fear or false practice or foolish imagination, that is
producing the untrue condition.
The writer once was able to heal a little boy with
a curious breaking out in the skin, which had for
some time resisted all treatment, through seeing a
mental picture, while treating him. The inner cause
of the trouble was a kind of auto-intoxicated imag-
ination, overwrought through reading Jules Verne's
"The Mysterious Island."
He was an impressionable boy and often grew
feverish after reading and restless at night from
exciting dreams.
The Truth brought forward the Wise One in him,
the fever passed and his skin was healed.
A child was once thrown into a fever in which its
delirium disclosed the cause to be a conversation at
the dinner-table between its elders, who did not
notice the child's attention, upon the disasters which
some one had prophesied would end the world.
Sometimes a terror or dislike seems to haunt a
child from its earliest existence, and the folly of
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 47
teasing it or scolding and shaming it has but aggra-
vated the error and made it more secret, until some
physical condition is the result.
A fierce temper or selfishness, unclean appetite,
cruelty, an abnormal habit may indicate obsession
and the healing may be a "casting out of demons."
A healer delivered a little boy from adenoids, who
had not seemed peculiar, except in the matter of a
bad temper. But the last day of his trouble, he
snarled and scratched and bit like a beast and ter-
rorized the family. But that night his body was
convulsed with struggles within him, which finally
ceased, leaving him pale and weak, but absolutely
free from the bad temper and from the troublesome
glands.
The doctor who had examined him and had told
his parents that there was nothing for his trouble
but an operation, gave him a final examination and
pronounced him completely well. When told what
had accomplished the healing, he answered, "I can-
not understand it, I only know that he had adenoids
and that now he has not a vestige of them."
The lady who healed the boy gave him Absolute
Truth, which is to see the child as God's own being,
never having been sick, not so now, nor ever can be,
but perfect, whole, pure Spirit, one with Christ
throughout Eternity.
Early Education in Health
All conversation upon disease, disaster and death
should be taboo in the Truth-regulated family.
Instead of impressing children with the danger in
certain things, emphasis should be placed upon the
safety of leaving certain things alone. The matter
of warning may seem the same, but the attitude of
48 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
mind that is constructive, an attitude the result of
spiritual culture, will carry deliverance in itself.
The wearisome "don't" should be eliminated from
family authority with all expedition possible.
Giving power to food or air, climate, exercise or
anything material should cease, these all being sub-
ject to thought and only secondary or reflective
causes, receiving their power from man's belief.
Most mothers know the virtue of withdrawing the
mind from hurts by engaging the attention in some-
thing else. The same should be done as to the heat
or the cold, as to internal troubles, outer losses, fears
and other false imaginations.
When attention is drawn to resemblances to other
members of the family, ancestors and relatives, im-
mediate and distant, in respect to some weakness or
liability to disease, there should be a reminding that
the Soul can manifest quite new results from even
the same tendencies, and these be altogether good.
Much can be done by the parent who will change
former fears into Absolute Trust in the All-Good.
A lady had always been agonizingly fearful of
accidents happening to her little son, and, when
physical training was recommended for his develop-
ment and his father put him into a gymnasium, her
fears for him know no bounds. For he was very
venturesome and did not hesitate to climb and swing
and jump in most reckless fashion.
Then the lady became a Truth-student and she
began to have faith for her boy, Edwin, that he, was
safe in the divine Omnipresence and no harm could
come to him. And everything changed, both within
herself and with Edwin. He ceased to fall and make
mistakes, and she saw him held by a new force to
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 49
the bars, ladders, trapezes, like steel-filings to a
magnet, and her heart and mind were forever at
peace as to his welfare.
When you see children in what appear to be dan-
gerous places, where no one can reach them, or in
which thoughtless parents are neglecting them, re-
member your thought can hold them in safety like a
magnet, or give them wings as they leap and tumble.
A baby-girl, two years old, fell twenty-five feet
before the eyes of some Truth-students and bounced
to her feet like a rubber ball with not a scratch or
bruise upon her.
Children Are Natural Healers
Nature and the Spirit are very close to each other
in our childhood, and thus children heal very easily
by the power of the Truth. They should be encour-
aged to take up cases early and to give God the glory.
Do not praise the child as though it did the work
its healing-power will depart with such vain-glory.
If unbelief and other errors, such as the common sins
and neglect of God's gift, can be kept from a child,
it will increase in its healing-power and will never;
lose it.
The inner senses are sometimes very open with
our little ones and they can aid them, and be a proof
that their powers are under Law and not mere
happening.
A little girl once proved to her mother her con-
scious power of healing, by speaking the word for
her Aunt Mary, of whom she was the namesake.
Aunt Mary had been very ill, and one evening little
Mary's mother, who had been giving her spiritual
50 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
treatment, returned home in a worried state of mind,
so that little Mary asked,
"What is the matter, mamma?"
"Your Aunt Mary is very sick with a fever and
has not slept for several nights," she replied, "and
mamma cannot seem to reach her with the treat-
ments."
"Let me give her a treatment," said the little four-
year-old, for she knew the virtue of absent treat-
ment.
The mother, thinking that it was to be a little
game with Mary, consented.
But as the little one sat with folded hands and
closed eyes, the mother watched her. She grew
restless and frowned and presently open her eyes
and said to her mother,
"Aunt Mary won't close her eyes!"
"Well, dear ! you tell her to close them."
Then little Mary again began her absent treatment
and after the lapse of some minutes, she said to her
mother,
"Aunt Mary is all right, she is asleep and she will
be well."
And so it proved. For when the mother went to
see her the next morning the lady told of her im-
pression the night before to close her eyes, and she
had slept the night through and in the morning was
perfectly well.
Teach a child very early the power of its mind in
its co-operation with God. Give it the way to pray
prayers of thanksgiving, unselfish prayers, prayers
that are praise to God and loving honor to Jesus
Christ.
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 51
A Healing Prayer
Loving Father! Thou dost now give me a trust-
ing heart, a wise mind and the Christ peace ; and I
thank thee heavenly Father for the truth which
now makes this thy little One perfectly free and
strong and well.
Thou dost enfold thy little child with thy protect-
ing Presence, and no harm can come within its en-
circling health, life and happiness.
I praise thee heavenly Father that I know my
child to be Thine, pure and perfect Spirit, wise with
the wisdom of God, loving with the heart of Christ
and inspired by thy Holy Spirit.
We thank Thee, healing presence of Christ, that
thy regenerating life now is renewing and rebuild-
ing thy child ; and now, perfect and complete health
is thoroughly established in thy little One, and all
is well !
Peace! Peace! Peace abides forever and our
Soul is filled with thanksgiving and praise and lov-
ing gratitude for the Truth, Jesus Christ, our Lord
and Savior forever. Amen.
VI.
Developing Talent, Character and
Spiritual Powers
Every Child Has Talent
NFOLDED within every child is its talent,
or gift from God, to be uncovered, culti-
vated and returned to its source, doubled,
as we read in the "Parable of the Tal-
ents," the words of the Lord, "Mine own
with usury."
It was from this parable that this good word,
"talent," came, showing how generally accepted has
been the idea that our talents come from God, that
they are given to us in order to glorify our Source,
and that they are given to every child of God, "to
every man according to his several ability."
It would seem that some of the handicapped mem-
bers of the human family must be exceptions to this
rule, but we need only remember a few such unfortu-
nates, like Blind Tom, the musical genius, and Helen
Keller, that brilliant star in a dark, dark night, to
realize that "with man it is impossible but with God
all things are possible."
Precocious Children
Each child is a precious gem, some showing their
light early, others still remaining in the rough.
Those whose beauty and power are revealed early,
should not be impressed with their own brilliancy.
Whatever beauty, virtue or praiseworthiness a child
may show, should be treated as the true manifesta-
52
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 53
tion of a child of God, gifts for which to thank
God and to accept in all true modesty and meekness.
By ascribing one's talents and beauty to the Giver
of all good gifts, a child can escape foolish vanity,
false self-consciousness, conceit, pride, worldly am-
bition and the folly of seeking name and fame with
their attendant heart-breakers, envy, jealously, hat-
red and malice.
Precocious children often become mediocre, be-
cause they must be veiled in order to do the work
which their heavenly Father has sent them to do.
To cultivate worldly ambition, to foster pride, to hold
the goal before them of a great name, worldly power
or position, these may seem to defeat the divine
intentions, therefore something is allowed to fall
like a veil, curtain or screen over the talents, once
so brilliantly visible.
Therefore, no matter how your children excel,
teach them that God has planted the same power in
all their human brothers and sisters that, in their
case, the talents are nearer the surface, and they
must thank God and be humbly glad ; that eventually
every one's talent will be revealed.
Encouraging Latent Powers
Let us be evenly minded about the gifts bestowed
upon children, and not exalt one child's talents far
above another's. One may be gifted as a house-
keeper, another as a musician, yet each gift held in
the highest can be the foundation of a most success-
ful career, the first as well as the last. The house-
keeper may become the founder of great institutions,
the boy with girl-tastes for colors and fabrics, a
54 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
great decorator and designer. Let no gift or in-
clination that is useful be despised.
It is wise never to laugh at the attempts of little
ones to express themselves as, for instance, in sing-
ing. Many a lover of music has been made silent as
to song, all the life long because some one scorned
the childish efforts to sing. They might not have
been singers, but they could have had the joy of
expressing themselves.
Natures seem slow in revealing themselves in
some our our dear little "commonplace" children;
they are like springs running underground or choked
with the stones of an uncultured or unrecognized
spiritual life.
Training in the ordinary virtues of a true life
may be quite sufficient to remove the stones and let
the inspiration well up and overflow to the world.
Application, continuity, faithfulness, honesty, pur-
ity, obedience, sincerity, self-control, these are some
of the virtues which should be cultivated as a matter
of principle the thing your child is interested in
being but the frame upon which to hang these im-
portant "treasures of heaven."
Study your child that you may not force it into a
round hole when it is square, nor a square hole when
it is round. A zealous mother had two sons whom
she wished to become finished musicians. She forced
the oldest son to practice at the piano, hour after
hour, though he had little taste for it. Arriving at
manhood, he seldom touched the piano, being ar-
dently fond of books. The second son, some ten years
younger, coming to the age for piano lessons, re-
ceived little encouragement from his tired mother,
who had resolved never again to urge her children
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 55
to practice. She did not notice how often the little
fellow hung over the keys, trying to gain knowledge
by himself. When he was grown he was an enthusi-
astic lover of music, and one of the best musical
critics in New York City. And often he voiced the
regret that his mother had not obliged him to take
lessons and to practice as she had forced his brother
to receive and to do.
Whatever a child shows keen interest in, raise to
its highest interpretation, then place that as his goal
and let him aim for the very Spirit of it and he
shall arrive, through it, at God.
Character Culture
In watching over the growth of character in our
young charges, it is well to have the same trust in
the great motif, the God within them, as one has in
the life and trueness-to-species that we see in a
young tree or animal.
A guardian overlooks the supreme Guardian, the
Power that projected the youth into being. Dearer
to God is this, His child, than it could possibly be to
any mortal.
Therefore, let us always "reckon with our Host"
and never let fear or unbelief, discouragement or
despair persuade us that our charge is ruining his
life or will become a criminal or an outcast. We
always have Prayer as our first, last and eternal
resort, and whenever one is tempted to break down
or lose heart, there should be a fresh hold laid upon
Prayer, the Mighty Word of God.
As a rule, the best trained child is the one least
trained, that is, the machinery does not show, be-
cause the mind of the mentor does not dwell upon
56 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
the fact of training, nor is there much talk about it.
Character rises up of its own accord. Give it
channels along which to flow, trellises upon which
to twine, and violence and wildness will largely be
eliminated.
Many times a mother can divert a passion that,
were it violently thwarted, might prove troublesome,
by giving the thoughts or feelings something else to
receive their intensity. One mother, whose little boy
would give way, at times, to paroxysms of rage,
often averted one by recognizing the symptoms of
its approach and taking her little son into the bath-
room, would turn on the taps, undress him quickly
and put him into a fine, warm bath, which he loved.
In the meanwhile she would talk to him silently and
aloud of "God's good boy." None but the best of
habits can form under the watchful eye of a true
and devoted mother.
Misunderstanding Children
Give children always the benefit of the doubt. It
is better to make many mistakes in ascribing good
and innocent motives, than to make one, in ascrib-
ing an evil intention where there was none.
Often a child's misdoings are taken too seriously
when, if they were righteously ignored, or over-
looked, because of principle ("Only the Good is
True;" "The Real Self can do no wrong"), the acts
would never be repeated. The names of vices need
not be given to a child before it is seven years old,
but it can learn early the beauty of virtues.
A child has been called a liar when he was simply
imaginative and not able as yet to distinguish be-
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 57
tween his subjective experiences his day-dreams
and the facts of the outer world.
Most of the deliberate falsifying of children comes
from fear, sometimes causeless fear, like the shying
of colts that have always been well-treated. With
such natures, their statements should not be ques-
tioned, especially when one knows the facts ; let one
proceed from one's own knowledge. When a child
is found telling imaginary things as facts, it should
be told that such talk is called "romancing" and
then the difference between its external experiences
and these mental events should be explained.
Love should inspire all the methods of correction ;
punishment should be last in one's thoughts. Never-
theless, a parent should feel free even to administer
such to children who prove themselves not amenable
to Love.
It is accepted as axiomatic that parents should be
free from anger when correcting their children.
When parents are shocked or made ashamed, or im-
patient, or angered, these feelings arise from a
belief in the reality of evil, which blinds them and
sometimes causes them to do a great injustice to a
child.
A lady once told the writer that a shock that she
received when little more than a baby had nearly
ruined her life. It came through her mother, who
really loved her and did not realize what she was
doing to the tender mind of the little girl. The child
was playing in a neighbor's house and on the table
saw a pretty gold thimble which she began playing
with and finally put into her pocket and soon after
went home. She was only three years old and had
never heard of such a thing as "stealing."
58 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
The neighbor saw the act and went at once to the
little one's mother, with an awful tale of the child
being a thief.
The mother was shocked, her pride wounded and
in awful tones she denounced the child, calling it a
thief, weeping over her, whipping her, sending her
back with the thimble, searing her little brain with
tales of the terrible fate that awaited her. The
child did not know what it was all about, but was so
terrorized that for years she suffered the effects of
it, and not until she came to the Truth, when nearly
fifty, was she able to forgive her mother.
Silent Communion With The True Self
The best work in bringing forth the better self
is done in the silent communion. The prayers that
are breathed when the little one's human thinking
and feeling are still in sleep are most effectual. The
prayers of thanksgiving for the power and presence
of the True Self and its mastery over the self that
appears to need spiritual help. A temper is best
reached this way.
A small girl with an uncontrollable temper was
healed by the family never speaking of it but silently
blessing her and consciously co-operating with her
higher self. Her healing came suddenly when one
day, as she lay on the floor kicking and screaming,
a sobering came to her as she realized she was rather
a big girl to be doing such things. She sat up and
in quietness she arose and shame-facedly went out
of the room. She never gave way to such anger
again.
Whenever a parent is puzzled, there should be a
constant communion with the Spirit until wise meth-
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 59
ods and skillful devices come to one's aid. Many are
the happy ways that come to parents who seek the
guidance of the Higher Intelligence, such for in-
stance as providing pets for the little ones. They
often learn tenderness, consideration and thought-
fulness through the care of pets. Interest in their
habits, ways and their homes, brings a respect for
their lives and desire to preserve them.
Spiritual Unfoldment
Preaching to the young should be carefully
avoided. Moralizing, "oughts," "musts" and "don'ts"
should be banished from our converse with them,
ever remembering that they have an innate sense of
justice and right, that faith in them will enliven
and bring forth.
Casual teaching of the deep things of life, indirect
presentation of religion, through Bible-stories and
true-life stories are best. Children are eager listen-
ers to spiritual talk between their elders, especially
if they themselves are not noticed.
Compulsory religious training is often worse than
ineffectual, for it even causes a great dislike for
what should be one's greatest love.
An early reverence for Jesus Christ has deepened
in the hearts of children who grow familiar with
the stories of his life. Many a child thinks fondly
of its own arrival at the age of twelve through
drawing the likeness between itself and Jesus at that
age.
Many children are very open as to their inner
senses and spiritual powers, and if they are allowed
to tell what they see and hear and of what they can
do, without any expression on our part of skepticism,
60 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
derision or other crushing resistance, they will
retain much that will be valuable to them in after
life.
It is perpetual and changeless love and apprecia-
tion on our part, of the finest and highest in our
children, that furnishes the means for the truest
unfoldment of their character. It is the warmth
that the mother-bird supplies to. her eggs. Let us
keep the glow steady for our nestlings and always
remember that God does the rest
VII.
Obedience and Freedom in Children
Inspired Management
lARENTS who are spiritually minded
should ever remember that in all the care,
thought and training of their children,
they are developing their own Christ-
consciousness to express itself in ever
truer forms and language. Thus can "patience have
her perfect work." No time is lost, no efforts wasted
that are spent in "bringing up a child in the way it
should go."
The belated training of our own unregenerate
nature -may be mirrored in our children, so that
while we are carefully teaching them the lessons of
self-control we ourselves may well receive instruc-
tion. Thus we may see, repeated in our child, that
obstinacy and perversity that has hampered our own
life, and while we turn its strength into a fine deter-
mination and rock-principle in our child's nature,
we can silently pray God that the same blessing be
upon ourselves. What a joy for a parent to find that
he is not obliged to meet his boy's obstinacy with
his own, two wills that sometimes in their clash are
like the "irresistible force that meets an immovable
object" in that no one knows just what will be the
outcome.
Instead of the violence of the old way, we have the
skill and silent reasoning of the new way, that does
not crush nor break the child's will but turns its
mighty force into the channels of divinest usefulness.
61
62 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
Obstinacy Overcome by Truth
As an illustration of the new method that wins,
the following is given: A lady who had been a
chronic victim of nervous prostration, and because
of it had been obliged to give the training of her
little girl into the hands of nurses, had finally re-
ceived her healing through the power of Truth. In
consequence, she began to undertake the control of
her little daughter, who had become quite "spoiled"
under the crude discipline of the servants. She was
naturally a sweet child but with very decided opin-
ions of what she liked or disliked.
One day she was dressed in her new spring clothes,
all daintily white, but when the nurse wished to put
on her new spring hat, she would not have it. Her
winter hood had become a great favorite and she
had no idea of discarding it. No reasoning, no
threats could move her. Her sharp crying filled the
house. In former days she would have been quickly
indulged, or dragged from the house because of her
mother's nerves.
But the mother had her brought to her, and told
her to sit down on a hassock at her mother's feet.
Her cries had not ceased, but all silently the mother
spoke to the Divine Reason in her :
"Child of God, you love to do that which is rea-
sonable and right. You are one with harmony and
truth and know the winning way of agreement."
And there came a realization to the mother of the
really sweet nature of her child and her "winning
ways," which we know are never ways of inharmony
or violence. She had not been speaking long to the
child's soul, when the little one stopped crying and
rising from her seat, slipped her hand into her
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 63
mother's, saying, "I will be good, mamma !" and she
was changed from that day.
"Give It to God"
Instead of giving up in despair over a child's un-
ruly spirit, turn to prayer and pour all your strong
feeling into the prayer of "believing you have re-
ceived." This is what a grandmother did for the
little three-year-old who had nearly worn her mother
out with her fiery and prolonged rages of temper.
Many were the times that Grandmother spoke to
little Virginia's soul to manifest itself, and one
morning the little girl filled her mother and grand-
mother with awe, as she lifted up her little face to
her grandmother, while tears welled up in her eyes,
and said,
"Virginia, bad temper! Give it to God!"
No one had said anything aloud to her about treat-
ment or her disposition. The words were wholly
original. What a proof of the way the Soul can be
reached by the Silent Word.
The Common View of Obedience
Few parents know the real reason for exacting
obedience of a child. They think of it generally in
connection with themselves and their own con-
venience; that a child should respect its parents'
commands and obey "because I say so."
Many times the orders are unreasonable or
thoughtless. The child begins to reason. An arbi-
trary parent sees the child's answer as an imperti-
nence, or a sign of threatening insubordination.
Then a demand is made for blind obedience which is
given sullenly or with reproachful looks, that raise
a sad barrier between two who should be one.
64 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
Another parent may realize that the order was
thoughtless and that it is not important to fulfill.
And he is indifferent to the child's disobedience,
neither withdrawing the command nor giving ex-
planation of his own indifference, with the result
of a habit of laxity being formed by the child, that
afterwards may express as a weak will.
Obedience, a Treasure Through Life
The act of obedience is for the child's sake, the
parents' comfort or pleasure being secondary. While
quite young, stories can be told a child about its body
and how to make it a good instrument through the
practice of obedience. It should be taught of the
record which the body keeps of every thought, and
that if it registers a false thought, just once too
often, disaster may result. The ears that will not
listen finally grow deaf. Willfulness and disobedi-
ence are at the root of many a case of deafness.*
Show them how their fingers obey their every
silent command and give them a story of skill,
through hands that are swift to obey their owner,
like David's skill in throwing the stone out of his
sling.
Compare the body and the mind to a fine horse
that obeys its master so that it will go up to the
edge of a precipice, and stop instantly at the com-
mand of its rider.
But more than anything else the whole being
should be trained to listen to "the still small voice"
within, and so be guided throughout one's life by
*One should never suggest to a child that a disease is
coming to it or threaten it with death or "bugaboos" or any-
thing else that causes fear.
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 65
the voice of God. This is the principal reason that
a child should grow accustomed to obedience and to
have it inculcated by love and not fear.
The obedience that comes from love may seem
natural to a child, so that he needs no teaching. But
if there is any one to whom he does not respond
quickly, then the lessons can be given him to obey
from principle or because of Truth or Jesus Christ
or God.
Freedom in Applying the Law
If one seems to have a natural rebel in the family
or a "a black sheep," such is an occasion for the
exercise of "Love that thinketh no evil," the main-
taining of trust in the best, it matters not what ap-
pears. Such a child may require close study to find
out the meaning of his life, not to treat it with weak-
ness nor sentiment but with insight and under-
standing.
Many a child puts itself under the Law by its dis-
obedience and rebellion, and fairly invites the exer-
cise of the Law of Cause and Effect. In such a case
it is "spare the rod and spoil the child." But to
hurt the body is the crudest use of the Law, and to
a child who is being taught not to feel pain, a mere
farce and ineffectual.
There are sequences which are very appropriate
results of certain forms of disobedience or wrong-
doing, that will come to the mind that is not too
hasty about inflicting punishment. The child that
learns without threats, that certain disagreeable re-
sults will follow untrue actions or neglectfulness, will
be saved much in his maturer years.
66 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
The Freedom That Makes Others Free
Sometimes obedience does not seem consistent
with freedom and parents who, themselves, were
brought up in a very strict way make the mistake of
confounding obedience with bondage. Then there is
apt to follow an indulgence with their children, that
they deem to be freedom, but which interferes with
the freedom of their neighbors.
This is one of the truths that can be profitably
pressed upon us all, that nothing is true freedom to
us which takes away the freedom of our neighbors.
By their fruits do we know all that is worth claim-
ing and adopting : the joy that brings joy to others,
the prosperity that prospers others, the love that
makes others loving, the freedom that makes others
free.
As Childhood Merges Into Maturity
A companion ever to your children, they will de-
light to tell you all their ambitions, trials, adven-
tures, even their mishaps and humiliations, especially
as you refrain from expressions of fear, criticism
and condemnation.
Good citizenship can often be a subject for dis-
cussion especially in connection with the Christ, into
whose hands all government shall yet pass. Integ-
rity, equality, honesty, justice, righteousness and
many other virtues of the true life can be illustrated
by stories of great men and women.
Good husbands and good wives, fathers and moth-
ers can be considered with our youths and maidens
if conversations on these themes can be kept free
from "barking at the bad," odious comparisons and
innuendoes.
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 67
As high resolve and noble ideals begin to rise
upon the horizons of those whose feet stand on the
borders between childhood and the adventure into
ripening life, then can come the time of decision for
those who would live the full life of the Christ here
upon the earth. Then can be placed before them the
choice between generation and regeneration, through
knowing the whole truth from the pure lips of
fathers and mothers who can say with the Christ,
"I have called you friends for all things that I have
heard of my Father I have make known unto you."
VIII.
Religious Education
PIRITUAL upbringing must include a
religious education and an ethical train-
ing. These three will equip a child with
a strong armor with which to meet those
suggestions, which are man's undoing
the secret thoughts of his own carnal nature "a
man's foes shall be those of his own household."
Many parents depend upon a child's reading or
schooling or the reciting of the Ten Commandments,
for its ethical training. But reason should have its
part and sympathy. If a boy is taught honor as the
way of a really successful life; kindness as a token
of real strength ; and his natural roughness, bravado,
cruelty and derision met with silent instruction, so
that the reality of these, straightforwardness, fear-
lessness, power and intelligence may be accentuated
and drawn forth, then his basis for ethical living can
be well founded.
But morality is not enough for a foundation of a
pure life. There must be a real religion, which is a
method of union with God, presented to a child. The
members of the root-races, that are the oldest and
the most orderly in their inner life, were always
taught to recite Scripture in their youth.
This is the time to lay up such treasures. But
watch, good parent ! that the learning be not made a
task but a joy, which may include a regular time for
the study, if only fifteen minutes a day, an appropri-
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 69
ate prize to be won, a reciting with them, and other
devices, such as finding texts in the Bible beginning
with A, B, C, etc. One of the first prizes can be a
New Testament of one's own a red-letter one, in
which Jesus' sayings are given in red type.
Certain long passages can become a daily recital
in concert, mother and children together, such as the
Twenty-third Psalm, the Ninety-first Psalm and the
Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:1-17; not too
many verses should be learned at a time.
The stories, told the wee ones, from the Bible
should be about the children in it. A good way is to
tell them the substance of it in your own language,
with certain graphical additions, which shall be true
to the facts of the scenes, the customs and dress of
the times described. Then read the literal story.
Ask the children themselves sometimes to tell it, or
to help in the telling.
For a beginning, the following can be used, and
though there be only one story a week perhaps as a
sweet part of Sunday, they will be getting some
very good knowledge of the letter of the Bible :
1 David and Goliath. 1 Samuel, chapters 16 and
17.
2 Little Samuel and the Lord's Call. 1 Samuel,
chapter 3.
3 Baby Moses and Sister Miriam. Exodus 2 :1-10.
4 Joseph, the Dreamer. Genesis, chapter 37.
5 Joseph, the Prisoner. Genesis 39 :20 to 40 :23.
6 Joseph Honored. Genesis, chapter 41.
7 The Widow's Son, that Elijah raised. 1 Kings,
chapter 17.
8 The Shunnamite's Son. 2 Kings 4 :8-37.
70 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
9 Naaman and the little Maid. 2 Kings 5:1-14.
10 Jesus' Birth. Luke 1:26-38, and Luke 2:1-20.
11 Jesus Twelve Years old. Luke 2 : 40-52.
12 J aims' Daughter. Mark 5 : 2 1-43.
13 Jesus Blessing Children. Matthew 18:1-6, 10-
14, and Mark 10: 13-16.
After these stories, as a primary teaching, can
come other stories from the Bible, the next selections
also being interesting.*
The following is a tentative list of subjects to read
and enlarge upon with stories:
1 The Creation. Genesis, chapter 1. (This will be
good to learn.)
2 The First Spiritual Man and Woman. Genesis,
chapters 2 and 3.
3 The Flood. Genesis, chapters 6, 7 and 8.
4 Jacob's Dream. Genesis, chapter 28.
5 Jacob's Blessing. Genesis 32 :24-32.
6 Joseph and his Brothers. Genesis, chapters 42,
43, 44 and 45.
7 The Israelites' Journey out of Egypt. Exodus,
chapters 1 to 20, 32 to 35.
8 Further History of the Israelites' Journey.
Leviticus 9:22-24; 10:1-11; 16:1-22; Num-
bers, chapters 11 to 17, 20 to 25.
9 The Story of Samson. Judges, chapters 13 to
16.
10 The Story of Ruth. The book of Ruth.
11 Elijah, the great Prophet. 1 Kings, chapters
*Much help as to the real significance of the Old Testament
can be found in Mrs. Militz' articles, New Light on the Bible,
in THE MASTER MIND, Vols. VII, VIII and IX.
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 71
17, 18, 19, 21 and 2 Kings, chapters 1 and
2:1-18.
12 Elisha, the healing Prophet. 2 Kings 2:19-22,
and 3:11-20 and chapters 4 to 7.
13 David. 1 Samuel, chapters 16 to 20, 24 to 26 ;
2 Samuel selections to 1 Kings, chapters 1
and 2.
14 Solomon. 1 Kings, chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10 and
11.
15 Story of Esther. The book of Esther.
16 The Trials and Victory of Job. Job, chapters 1,
2, 32, 33 and 42.
17 Daniel. The whole book of Daniel.
18 Jonah. The book of Jonah.
19 Selections from Isaiah, Hosea, Joel, Zechariah
and Malachi.
20 The Four Gospels.
21 The Book of Acts.
22 Selections from Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephe-
sians, Philippians and 1 John.
If it is not possible to send your children to a Sun-
day School where the true message is taught, you
should have one in your own home, to which can be
added the neighbors* children whose parents are in
sympathy.
A plan for conducting Sunday School can be found
in THE MASTER MIND, Vol. I, page 166 (or the Feb-
ruary 1912 issue).
The following questions and answers have been
found helpful in giving a child the epitome of the
faith and the truth that saves :
72 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
Statements of Truth
1 What is God?
God is the All-Good.
2 What is the All-Good?
The All-Good is Life, Love, Truth, Mind, Spirit,
Health and Strength.
3 Where is God?
God is here, there and everywhere.
4 Who am I?
I am a child of God ; I am the idea of God ; I am
the image and likeness of God.
5 Who created me?
God.
6 What am I created for?
I am created to manifest the All-Good.
7 What must I then manifest?
I must manifest Life, Love, Truth, Health and
Strength.
8 What is my work?
My work is to do the Will of God.
9 Where do I live?
I live in God.
10 What is the creation of God?
The Christ in me is the creation of God.
11 What is the Christ?
The Christ is the Son of God. Christ is the True
Spiritual Self.
12 Was Jesus the only Christ?
No, the Christ is in each one of us.
13 Was Christ crucified?
No, Jesus, the flesh, was.
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 73
14 What does crucifying mean ?
Crucifying means putting away the old self.
"Ye have put off the old man with his deeds
and have put on the new man which is renewed
in knowledge after the image of Him that cre-
ated him." Col. 3 :9-10.
15 What is repentance?
Repentance is changing the mind.
16 How do I change my mind?
I change from believing in evil to believing in
what is true and good.
17 What is forgiveness?
Forgiveness is giving good for evil, and giving
truth for error.
18 What is salvation?
Salvation is being saved, made free.
19 What am I saved from?
I am saved from sickness and from sin; from
pain and death, misery, want and every evil.
20 What is it that saves me?
The Truth saves me.
"Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall
make you free." John 8 :32.
21 What is heaven?
Heaven is a perfect state of happiness.
22 Where is heaven?
Heaven is here.
"The kingdom of God is within you."
23 Must I die to go to heaven?
No, dying is no part of my life, and I am in
heaven now.
24 What is the first commandment?
74 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind, and with all thy strength." Mark
12:30.
25 Is there any other commandment?
There is another which is really the same
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
Mark 12 :31.
26 Why is it just the same?
It is just the same because it is God in my neigh-
bor that,! love; for there is no one else to love,
since God is all there really is.
27 What is consecration?
Consecration is giving myself to God. It is God
who wills and works through me to will and
to do whatever ought to be done by me.
28 How do I give my hands and feet to God?
By doing good and loving deeds.
29 How do I give my lips to God ?
I give my lips to God by speaking only pure and
kind words.
30 How do I give my heart and mind to God ?
By thinking and wishing true and loving
thoughts for all.
^ "Let the words of my mouth and the medita-
tions of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O
Lord, my strength and my redeemer." Psalms
19:14.
It is a good observance, to have a few seconds of
silence before eating a moment of praise and thanks
to God and declaration as to the true food. The little
CHILD UNFOLDMENT 75
ones can say the words aloud, while the older mem-
bers of the family repeat them silently.
The following verses from Psalms and the words
of Jesus constitute a good "Grace before Meals" :
"Bless the Lord, my soul: and all that is within
me bless his holy name." Psalm 103:1.
"My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and
to finish his work." -John 4 :34.
The morning and evening prayer, that even the
tiniest one can lisp at his mother's knee, is The Lord's
Prayer, which can be prayed affirmatively instead of
as a petition, for the original Greek allows of such a
translation :
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed is thy
name. Thy kingdom is come, thy will is done on
earth as it is in heaven.
Thou dost give us this day our daily bread. Thou
dost forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those
who trespass against us. Thou dost lead us, not into
temptation but thou dost deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the
glory forever. Amen.
For a self-healing treatment and also a treatment
for others, the verses below are good, either recited
with eyes closed, or sung to the tune of Hursley L. M.
PRAYER
God is my help in every need,
God does my every hunger feed,
God walks beside me, guides my way
Through every moment of this day.
76 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
I now am wise, I now am true,
Patient, kind and loving too ;
All things I am, can do and be,
Through Christ the truth, that is in me.
God is my health, I can't be sick ;
God is my strength, unfailing, quick,
God is my all, I know no fear,
Since God and Love and Truth are here.
Keep your heart and mind, Mother in Israel,
close to the great Mother-Heart of us all, and many
shall be the original and inspired directions and
devices, that God can drop into your consciousness,
as you guide His child back to its Christ and its God.
IX.
Regeneration
FE closing word must I speak for our
youths and maidens, who have come to
this earth on their closing visit, to finish
the work which their Father has given
them to do.
These often disclose their appreciation of their
commission by an unusual attitude towards the pleas-
ures and business of the world. Though normal,
they seem to have little use for what pleases their
companions, and often show no special ambition
towards business or marriage. A wise parent will
not press these upon such young people, but watch
over them with heavenly vigilance.
For the young boy must be kept from those temp-
tations, that often assail youths who have the femi-
nine unfolded in their nature as well as the mascu-
line. Like the angels who visited Lot in wicked
Sodom, they may be tested by unregenerate natures,
and God's truth must enfold them until, like Jacob,
the Angel of His Presence makes them strong in
their purity and wise in their freedom. For they
are the new Knights of the Holy Grail, the Sir
Galahads, of whom it must be said,
"Their strength is the strength of ten,
Because their hearts are pure."
Likewise the maiden who feels that marriage has
no attraction for her, except it be for the children
77
73 CHILD UNFOLDMENT
that might then come to her arms. She should not
be pressed into any loveless union for the sake of a
home and offspring, or simply because marriage is
looked upon as the only true destiny for a woman.
Such children should be equipped early for the
ministry, and everything that education, art, travel
and high association can give them should be theirs,
that they may be true priests and ministers of the
Christ, eminently fitted to carry the good news to the
uttermost parts of the earth.
A word to the Wise is sufficient.
IT is SAID.
RECEIVE THE LITTLE ONES
And safe indoors, round mother gathered ;
Sweet tales are told and prayers are said ;
Then little heads caress the pillows
And angels guard each little bed.
Dear people, ye, whose homes are lonely ;
Whose hearts and lives are lonely, too,
Oh, do not think that no one wants you
Some little child has need of you.
JOHANNA DUCK,
in Child-Welfare Magazine.
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