Article October 5, 1940 Issue

Sunday School Notes and Comments

About ten days before a regular Sunday school teachers' meeting held in a branch church, one of the teachers was asked to answer this question at the meeting: "Should the children memorize? If so, to what extent?" The teacher, after carefully considering the question, gave her thought on the subject as follows:

As we grow in the understanding of Christian Science we appreciate, more and more, Mrs. Eddy's wisdom in providing that the first lessons taught the Sunday school children should be the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer with its spiritual interpretation, as given by her on pages 16 and 17 of Science and Health, and the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:3–12). (See Manual of The Mother Church by Mrs. Eddy. Art. XX. Sect. 3.)

She continued: In the turmoil and confusion of the world today, we frequently find it helpful to turn our thought to some statement of truth which we have memorized from the Bible or our Leader's writings, thereby regaining our spiritual equilibrium. So, also, the children need to be fortified. But here one should be mindful lest the spirit be lost in the memorizing of the letter. The memorizing of words can never take the place of spiritual understanding. To have the children merely memorize the Commandments is not truly teaching them the meaning of the Commandments. Correctly speaking, true instruction consists in aiding in the spiritualization of thought, and is not merely making a correct statement of the letter.

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