Article October 17, 1925 Issue

The Fourth Commandment

AMELIA F. BENJAMIN

In the study of a Lesson-Sermon on "Sacrament," a student of Christian Science was deeply impressed with Jesus' observance of the Passover. Not only did he observe it in obedience to a religious custom instituted in the period of the activities of Moses in leading the children of Israel out of the bondage of Egypt, but he elevated the form of worship which it indicated to a more spiritual meaning and application. As this evidence of compliance with religious custom or form by our Way-shower began to unfold in its necessity and spiritual import, the student became cognizant of the need in this hour for Christian Scientists to be alert to their privilege and duty, namely, the willing observance of certain forms of worship still incumbent upon us, and the instruction of our children in loving compliance therewith.

In our Church Manual (pp. 62,63) we find the first of our Leader's provisions for the instruction of children in Sunday school to be as follows: "The first lessons of the children should be the Ten Commandments." In teaching the Ten Commandments in Sunday school, the fourth commandment as well as the others should receive consideration. As one contemplates the former beliefs of the many who turn to Christian Science for healing and salvation, one need not be amazed that these varying beliefs are expressed in the children, but rather should he ponder the words of Mary Baker Eddy in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 224): "We should remember that the world is wide; that there are a thousand million different human wills, opinions, ambitions, tastes, and loves; that each person has a different history, constitution, culture, character, from all the rest."

We find, therefore, that there are those who before turning to Christian Science have been trained in strictest observance of a set form of keeping the Sabbath; that others have been taught a mournful attitude toward it, coupled with a deprivation of normal and legitimate activity, bringing about a dreaded inertia in the home; that to others it has meant only a day of cessation from physical labor; and that to others still it has meant no more than any other day in the week, and such as these indulge in frivolous amusements which appeal only to the material senses, accentuating the belief in the value of material pleasures. These customs are not adapted to the observance of the Sabbath as a symbol of that heavenly rest referred to by the writer to the Hebrews when he said: "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God"—even that rest from the beliefs which hold out good to mankind as in matter.

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