THE CHILD by Mrs. Mary Wood-Allen, M.D.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 6, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 32.

THE CHILD

By Mrs. Mary Wood-Allen, M.D.

IX.—PURITY.

TWO men stood looking over an expanse of country. One saw the stony soil, the narrow valleys, the rough hills, and meager crops and exclaimed, “What a miserable farming country!” The other saw the bold outlines, the changing shadows, the reflection of sea and sky in the silent pool, and exclaimed, “What a beautiful picture!”

The same landscape, but each saw in it what his own education and experience made him capable of seeing. This is true of all travelers. London to each man who visits it is his own peculiar city. It will be a different place to each. The man of fashion will not see what the archæologist sees, the sporting man has a different city from the manufacturer. Even so with life. One whose vision has been made keen to perceive beauty will see it everywhere; while he who knows nothing but utility will see nothing worthy but that which serves his purpose. One who is like Bunyan’s man with the muck rake sees only filth, but one who has the vision of a true seer

“Finds tongues in trees, Books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything.”

To such an one is given the promise of the Saviour, “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.”

Who does not long for such a vision? But we are apt to imagine that such a blessing is reserved for our portion after death. The truer interpretation is that even now, with a heart made clean, we can see God in all His works, and be lifted up into that clearer atmosphere which finds in all processes of life only a manifestation of God.

To many ignorance and innocence seem synonymous terms, and they therefore believe that the innocence of the child is best maintained by keeping him ignorant of certain phases of life. To these, the word that heads this article will open a vision of darkness and danger from which they would earnestly warn the unwary feet, or lead the ignorant safely past the dangers with blindfolded eyes. These have not the anointing which opens the eyes to the blessed vision of God. The word purity suggests to them the results of impurity, and they misunderstand the attitude of the one who claims that it is wise to instruct the young in purity. The apostle tells us that if there be anything pure, lovely, and of good report, we are to think on these things. That is what we mean to do; that is what we desire to be wise enough to do. If our sight is not clear we pray for the purification of heart which shall enable us to see God now and here, see Him not only in inanimate nature, but in the vital facts of human existence, in the basic fact of life itself.

We know that these facts can not always remain hidden from the knowledge of the child, and we are culpably unwise if we think that he is ignorant because we have not talked to him ourselves. On every side are those who are ready, yes, anxious to enlighten his ignorance even before he has himself become aware of it. The problem before the parent then is, “Shall I allow my child to remain uninstructed by me, thus leaving him a prey to evil knowledge communicated by vicious companions, or shall I myself be his teacher, giving him that pure truth which shall dignify and glorify these mysteries of life?”

God has made no secret of life’s origin. If the child has no other teacher, nature herself will enlighten him. To the eye of the All-Father, His processes are still “good,” and what we need is to see Him in them all.

The child who begins to think arrives in time at the query as to why he is here. It is no evil impulse that prompts this inquiry, but a divinely-implanted eagerness to know, and it is therefore an evidence of intelligence. I have known mothers to be so shocked at this most natural question of their child that they have considered it a proof of his total depravity. Their own education has made it impossible to see God in this seeking for knowledge. The child’s inquiry, coming from a pure heart, may be simply and purely answered, and cause him no embarrassment; but the parent whose thought is untrue, whose vision is distorted, needs a special presentation of the matter in order that he shall be able to answer the questions as to the origin of life frankly, himself unembarrassed.

If we can remove the personal element, we shall make the way easier for ourselves. Let us study life from a standpoint outside of ourselves. We can imagine that the great All-Father, desiring to express Himself upon the earth, considered all possible plans for the perpetuation of life. That he chose one plan, is the evidence that it is in itself pure and good, for God is too pure to behold evil. Then in the plan itself we can find no impurity. It is a plan that maintains from the lowest forms of organic life up to the highest.

We may wonder why God did not create each individual by His own hand, and we feel that that would indeed have been a glorious destiny, but would it have been in truth as grand a heritage as that which man has received from God in being permitted to share in His creative power? It would indeed have been a marvelous thing to have come direct from the hand of God, but how much more marvelous it is to be permitted to call into being creatures like ourselves, endowed with divine possibilities, and capable of receiving the gift of God’s grace in immortality!

Truly life itself is not so wondrous as the power to impart life to others; to write upon other souls the record of our thoughts, ambitions, moods, or tempers; to make or mar other lives by our own lives, generations before those others come into existence. If procreative power were cleansed of the thought of sense-pleasure, if it had never been degraded from its high purpose, we should be able to see in it the most glorious vision of God. And instead of shrinking from the study of it as unclean, we should bow ourselves before its contemplation as in the very presence of the Infinite.

The father or mother who has this blessed vision of God, will be able to be the wise and pure instructor of the child; able to explain to him his relation to his parents in a way that shall bind him to them with ever-endearing ties of deepest affection. It will need study to become possessed of the scientific facts. It will require especial preparation of heart that the facts may be wisely presented. Out of this reverent study of the origin of life will arise a truer appreciation of man’s destiny. A new meaning will be given to the words father, mother, child. The home will be cleansed of that which defiles. Marriage will have a deeper significance, and the whole of life will be purified and ennobled.