Article April 15, 1916 Issue

Sunday School for Children

MANA WILLIS FISHER

BEGINNERS in the study of Christian Science sometimes ask why the Christian Science Sunday school is for the children only, and the officers need to use wisdom and patience in explaining this rule. On this point the Sunday school is identical with the policy followed by the public schools of our country. When a child finishes in school, much of his education is yet to be obtained,—in fact he gets the greater part after leaving school,—but the foundation has been laid, and the further building depends on the individual. In Christian Science we learn that the one depending most on God grows the most rapidly. Many times there is a longing on the part of the beginner to attend Sunday school, thinking that it will hasten the growth Spiritward. For years before taking up this study, the average person had depended on others to do his religious thinking, but our Leader with her usual perspicacity saw that it was time for each individual to learn that his true self was as capable of thinking as are any of God's ideas, and as proficient on this line as on any other.

Jesus was the greatest teacher the world has ever known. He always directed thought to the one Father, his Father and theirs. The lesson sometimes took the form of the healing of physical distress or of a moral lack ; sometimes he taught through a parable, which was always along a simple line. He was ever ready to teach the receptive thought and quick to discern whether his hearers were most interested in the teaching or the teacher. Our Leader tried earnestly to turn her students' thoughts to Principle, and when she discerned that they were thinking too much about her, she withdrew and left them to contemplate the teaching but not the teacher. Both of these messengers of God realized that the value of the teaching would be lost unless it turned thought to God alone.

If those past the age of twenty had a Sunday school teacher, they would doubtless ask him for the answer to the various problems they are called upon to solve, thus becoming sluggish in thought, instead of spending hours in prayer and study. As divine Mind is looked to and depended upon as the teacher, each day the teaching becomes clearer. It would be impossible for a Sunday school teacher in one hour to explain to a class of six the teaching that could be gained in six hours of individual study on this lesson. This seeming lack has been abundantly filled. What Christian Scientist would exchange his "Key to the Scriptures" for the privilege of attending Sunday school? The Sentinel and the Monitor, with their weekly and daily message along the same line, as is so often the case, help to awaken thought to the true meaning of the Bible Lesson.

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