Article April 12, 1913 Issue

FOUNDATIONAL WORK

MANA WILLIS FISHER.

Work in the Christian Science Sunday school is often called foundational for the reason that the children who attend the Sunday school expect to become members of our churches, inasmuch as a child who attends long enough to catch a glimpse of the truth is likely to be a Christian Scientist always. How necessary, then, that there should be strict obedience to the by-law which says that the teaching given them "must not deviate from the absolute Christian Science contained in their text-book" (Manual, Art. XX, Sect. 3). In one of our branch churches a few years ago a committee was appointed to form rules and by-laws for a rapidly growing Sunday school. These rules, which were intended for the use of the teachers, included a graded course of instruction; but the more the committee worked the more they saw that the ground was all covered in the apparently brief instructions given in the Manual. The rules were, however, completed, typewritten, and given the teachers, but before long were recalled and destroyed, thus leaving each teacher free to use the inspiration and understanding which came to him as the result of faithful and prayerful work.

Recently, in one of the younger classes, the thought came to the teacher that these little ones were there to find a foundation on which to build. They were asked, "What is a foundation?" and with the answer from a lad whose father was an architect, came the inspiration for study in which the "first lessons" were to be used in accordance with the rule given in the Manual. The little fellow said that a foundation was what the rest stood on; and this led to the construction of a building in Mind, beginning at the foundation or basis. The use which Mrs. Eddy makes of the word "basis" on page 482 of Science and Health, "Christian Science is the law of Truth, which heals the sick on the basis of the one Mind or God," was at once recalled by the teacher and pointed out to the children, and the foundation of our building was thus seen to be God.

Continuing the simile, each child was asked to give a "rock" or foundational truth (see Science and Health, p. 593) of which he knew, in order to help make up the foundation, and they all entered heartily into this effort, from the child of three who lisped "God is Love," to the older ones who gave "substance" and "intelligence" as part of the definition of God (pp. 2, 587). When each child had presented a rock, we compared our foundation with the first commandment, and found that it would stand the test. Then we started to think about the framework, and reviewed the beatitudes to see what Jesus had told us was blessed. After each pupil had given a beatitude, we proceeded to find material for the structure, such as meekness, humility, forgiveness, purity of thought, etc. At this point came the review of the commandments, to see what we should not use in our building. We decided that we must not have idols, or false witnesses, that God's name must not be spoken in vain, and that we must be careful to keep out all dishonest, murderous, adulterous, and covetous thoughts. From the definition of angels as given in the glossary of our textbook (p. 581), we next learned what kind of thoughts we should have.

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FOUNDATIONAL WORK

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