Article February 28, 1920 Issue

"Feed my lambs"

ETHEL MUNRO GOSS

The keynote of Sunday school work is to be found in those gentle words of the Master, "Suffer the little children to come unto me." This loving invitation is given by our Sunday schools, and the great needs of the teacher are first a willingness to serve, which always involves a sacrifice of self, and then a humble desire to learn the best way to meet the needs of the little ones. We may have to lay aside many old theories about teaching; for in a Christian Science Sunday school we are not aiming at the pouring in of knowledge. It is a department and an activity of the church as defined by our Leader on page 583 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," our work in the Sunday school being, in the words of Mrs. Eddy, to rouse "the dormant understanding," to teach the children to think spiritually, to think in terms of spiritual fact, not in terms of material sense evidence. To do this we must keep watch over our own thinking, and no amount of teaching the letter can ever take the place of awakening the spirituality which lies, although sometimes hidden, in the heart of every child. If we would teach the commandments we must obey them ourselves; we must live the Beatitudes and know the beauty of mercy, purity, and peace ourselves if we would reveal them to the child, and we must have felt the joy of communion with the Father if we would help the children to understand the Lord's Prayer.

What we give the children we reflect spiritually. The mental atmosphere one exhales blesses or hinders, as much as anything he says. It is one's deep faith and confidence in good which will help all. In this work Mrs. Eddy's words have special application: "This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result of scholarly attainments; it is the reality of all things brought to light" (Science and Health, p. 505). No Pharisaism, criticism, self-glorification, can stand the test of a child's clear eyes, and there is no work that makes a greater demand for purity, honesty, and humility. "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven," said the Master.

They come to the Christian Science Sunday school at all

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