Article July 27, 1918 Issue

Results of Sunday School Experience

LEON J. CORBEY

Although I have had a number of proofs of the healing power of Christian Science in regard to physical ailments, I am especially grateful to God for having directed our Leader to establish the Sunday school for us, in connection with our church services, because it was here that the seed of truth was sown in my consciousness. It had been my privilege to attend the Christian Science Sunday school for some twelve or thirteen years; but not until later, when I had the beautiful experience of teaching there with some of those who taught me, did I realize that I, indeed, had had a rare opportunity.

Perhaps some who have not had the advantage of the instruction given in a Christian Science Sunday school, may be tempted to regret that such was not their experience, and to think that had they received this instruction they would now be better Christian Scientists. Such an arguement is merely a suggestion of the tempter, because the various activities of the Christian Science movement and its authorized teachers afford ample opportunities for progress; for, as Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with key to the Scriptures" (p. 462), "self-denial, sincerity, Christianity, and persistence alone win the prize, as they usually do in every department of life." Mere attendance at Sunday school will no more make one a Christian Scientist than will mere attendance at a Christian Science church. In both cases progress rests entirely with the individual, and activity, study, application, and practice are essential.

I found in my own experience that such is the case, and that in my association with other boys mere attendance at a Christian Science Sunday school did not keep me out of quarrels, nor prevent me from actually participating in fights, throwing stones at my assailants and calling them names; neither did it prevent me from participating in the many mischievous frolics and sins of my "gang." However, when I actually applied and put into practice the truths I had been taught in the Sunday school, peace, harmony, and right prevailed. The psalmist says, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty," and herein is the secret of progress in spiritual understanding. Just so long as we dwell in the "secret place of the most High," in the realization of the truth about God and man voiced in the Christian Science services and Sunday school, we are safe; but let us for one moment step out from "under the shadow of the Almighty," or descend from the "secret place of the most High" to the thoughts of the carnal or mortal mind, and "the arrow that flieth by day" is liable to reach us and bring us under the influence of mortal laws and beliefs. And so I learned that in the degree I made the Lord my refuge and habitation, and in the degree I held to the truths taught in the Sunday school, did His angels have charge over me, and keep me in all my ways, and bear me up when I would have dashed my foot against a stone.

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