Some year's experience in Sunday School work has led to the desire to express my gratitude for the by-laws in our Manual governing Sunday Schools. This is particularly true with reference to the by-law which outlines the subject for lessons, and more particularly that part described as "first lessons;" that is, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer and its spiritual interpretation by Mrs. Eddy, and the sermon on the mount, as it has become so evident that this study supplies the foundation and necessary preparation for the work to follow.

After working with a class of small children for a short time on the "first lessons," I found myself looking forward to the time when I would be given a class old enough to study the Lesson-Sermon, or as stated in the Manual, "the next lessons," thinking that in this work would be found the great opportunity for the pupil's advancement as well as my own. As I, however, had been asked by the superintendent to remain with this class until the first of the year, which was some months hence, I found myself under the necessity of making a deeper research in the Bible and Science and Health for the spiritual interpretation of the commandments, beatitudes, etc., being told that there was much in these which would unfold when prayerfully studied. It was with this thought that I took up the Concordance, and starting with the question on page 465 of Science and Health, "What is God?" I found in addition to the answer to this question many clear, concise statements which brought out the thought of God as Mind, Love, Principle, etc.; and I saw that, first of all, the pupil entering the Christian Science Sunday School should be given a correct concept of God, even though this concept might be quite limited in the beginning. It was then that I began to comprehend something of the reason why Mrs. Eddy in her great wisdom had provided the commandments as the first lesson for every pupil entering our Sunday Schools, and also why this work is just as important for the young people in their teens who now enter our Sunday Schools as it is for the smallest child, since nothing else could be given to the pupil intelligently until this foundation is established and the pupil has gained some glimpse of the one creator, the infinite Mind that is good only.

Then, in taking up the word "idolatry," which was suggested through "graven image," I found (Science and Health, p. 146) that "the first idolatry was faith in matter;" and since idolatry is the attributing of power or being to some other source than the one true God, it is plain that the second commandment strengthens the first one by declaring that man shall not make unto himself another creator, that is, believe that matter is a creator. Here, then, is the thought that came: Thou shalt have (know) one God who is Love, Mind, good. Thou shalt not have (not know) matter, evil, sin, disease,—anything that is unlike God; and that to fail to have the active thought which declares the reality of good and denies the reality of evil is to "take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." Invariably the claim is presented that there is evil and matter, because mortals seem to see it with their eyes; an argument which may be met with the question, What are you honoring in your thought,—your Father-Mother God, who created all things spiritually, or are you believing in another creator? This line of thought continues to unfold throughout the Lord's Prayer and its spiritual interpretation by Mrs. Eddy, and then follows the comforting beatitudes, which add to these commands, or divine laws of life, the preparation of the heart so necessary for true obedience.

This last part of the "first lessons" showed me that thought needs to be emptied of all preconceived opinions of God, man, and the universe, to be "poor in spirit," in order to know the truth of being; that mortals need to be mindful of this all along the way, so that they may have one Mind, one God, and keep the First Commandment; also, that it is true meekness to know that man is nothing of himself; that we can only have true peace on one basis, namely, the knowledge of the allness of God and the nothingness of evil. Through obedience to the commandments we find that there is only one way by which we can be "pure in heart," and that is through honoring Spirit and not matter; and that "the determination to hold Spirit in the grasp of matter is the persecutor of Truth and Love" (Science and Health, p. 28). It was at this point that I saw why the order in the Manual places the commandments before the beatitudes, and why the First Commandment is first in importance.

It is now nearly three years since my thought turned longingly to the "next lessons," and since that time I have found so much to learn in the "first lessons" that I do not yet begin to see the end. The awakening which comes as this work continuously unfolds, fills me with gratitude to our Leader for by-laws that give us what we need, long before we have the understanding to appreciate it; that it is only through intelligent obedience we are led to where we can see, and are then filled with rejoicing through this vision.