Article October 25, 1913 Issue

Importance of the Sunday School

LLOYD B. COATE

To fathers and mothers solicitous for the spiritual welfare of their children, our Leader's gentle admonition, "Parents should teach their children at the earliest possible period the truths of health and holiness. Children are more tractable than adults, and learn more readily to love the simple verities that will make them happy and good" (Science and Health, p. 236), is of deep import. Realizing also the great importance of the Sunday school work as a factor in this moral and spiritual training, our revered Leader wisely provided the course to be pursued in teaching the children.

The first lesson is the ten commandments as found in the twentieth chapter of Exodus, and we cannot speak of the commandments without referring to and giving due credit to the Bible character through whom God gave this statement of His law to the world. The next two lessons are the Lord's Prayer, with its spiritual interpretation, as found on page 16 of Science and Health, and the Sermon on the Mount. It would likewise be impossible to teach correctly the Lord's Prayer and the beatitudes without associating with them the name of the Founder of Christianity. The ten commandments came to mankind through Moses; the Sermon on the Mount through Christ Jesus; and Christian Science, which again teaches men how to apply the great truths of the Mosaic decalogue and the Sermon on the Mount, to the destruction of both sin and sickness, has come through our Leader.

The Manual of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, Mass. (p. 41), explicitly states that Christ Jesus is the Ensample for Christian Scientists, and that "careless comparison or irreverent reference to Christ Jesus is abnormal in a Christian Scientist, and is prohibited." On page 42 Mrs. Eddy declares that there is but one Christ, "even that Christ whereof the Scripture beareth testimony." It is also noteworthy that "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by the same author contains more than eight hundred references to Jesus the Christ, under various names, such as "Jesus," "Jesus Christ," "Christ Jesus," "Christ," "Lamb," "Master," "Nazarene," "Prince of Peace," "Son," "Teacher," "Wayshower." (See Concordance to Science and Health.)

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