Article May 6, 1916 Issue

Teaching in the Sunday School

AIMÉE E. FRALEY

When one is asked to teach a class in a Christian Science Sunday school, he is frequently confronted with the problem of how to maintain order and hold the interest of the pupils. In thinking along this line, I have listened very carefully to what parents and school-teachers had to say about children, for it is they who come in touch most closely with the child life. I have found this thought very generally voiced by them: "A child manifests so much life; indeed, is full of life,"—a statement which was almost invariably followed by the narration of some act of disobedience, a disregard of rules and regulations, so that it would seem as if life expressed itself in the activity of error.

Mrs. Eddy says, "Truth cannot be reversed, but the reverse of error is true" (Science and Health, p. 442). All Christian Scientists are learning to recognize God as the only Life, the only cause, so with this statement of our text-book in view I went to work to solve the problem. It became very clear to me that Life is expressed in activity, and when we accept the Bible statement that God made man in His image and likeness, we see that each child of God must necessarily be an avenue for what God is; therefore the human child should manifest only the activity of good, expressed in order, obedience, purity, attentiveness, and receptivity. Truth would also express itself through the child in honesty, humility, and truthfulness, and we must strive to realize that there is nothing which can prevent the child from knowing, realizing, accepting, and reflecting the qualities of Truth. Our Master said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,"—free to rejoice in God-given dominion over the belief of the activity of evil or error.

God being Mind, intelligence, the child should be looked upon as an avenue for intelligence to express itself in mental alertness, a perfect memory, and the ability to think clearly and logically. "Mind alone possesses all faculties, perception, and comprehension," we read in Science and Health (p. 488). God being Love, the child, spiritually understood, should be regarded as an avenue for the activity of Love, expressed in kindness, unselfishness, and love for God and man, which we know destroys all hate, envy, malice, or jealousy. Then with the realization of God as omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient, we seek to bring into demonstration in each child a complete harmonious activity, or in other words, God's child. The Sunday school teacher must be alert to recognize that he or she is merely the avenue for right teaching, and the true motive is given on page 454 of Science and Health: "Love ... is the true incentive in both healing and teaching."

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Teaching in the Sunday School

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access