Article April 29, 1933 Issue

"Ye joyous children"

MURIEL ASHCROFT BILLINGS

The refrain from a hymn, "Sing, ye joyous children, sing," brought to the thought of a student of Christian Science a deep sense of the debt of gratitude that we owe to our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, for her wise provision of the Christian Science Sunday School. It is a joy to see the demonstration of the harmony of being in the lives of the children in our Sunday schools; and the fruitage which they bring to the class from their experience during the week gives wonderful confirmation of our Leader's admonition in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 237): "Children should be taught the Truth-cure, Christian Science, among their first lessons."

The change in the behavior of children, unacquainted with the teachings of Christian Science, who are newly come into the Sunday school and of the same children after they have become regular attendants is marked. The joyousness which shines from the happy faces of those to whom "the glory of the Lord" has begun to be revealed, offers an appeal to the young stranger which brings him back again, until he too is "one of these little ones." Sometimes a new student shows, in what seems to be apathy, the need for realization of divine Love's ever-presence; and the love reflected by more experienced scholars helps to melt away this seeming barrier.

Teachers of the preliminary classes should be extraordinarily alert to recognize the need of this tenderly sustaining sense of divine Love, and to be careful to give each stranger full assurance of his welcome. Sometimes error seems to interpose a barrier of shyness; sometimes a sense of formality creeps in, through undue stress on necessary routine pertaining to attendance cards, enrollment, and other types of records. It is necessary to be fully alert to our opportunity, so that when a child comes for bread he is not given a stone. We must realize that the child would not have come unless Love had drawn him; but we have our part to do in showing him that Love supplies his need.

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