Article January 3, 1942 Issue

Sunday School Notes and Comments

In obeying Mrs. Eddy's instructions in the Church Manual, when teaching the young children in Sunday school, I selected one commandment, a line of the Lord's Prayer, or a beatitude for each Sunday. In preparation, my first thought was, "What are my aims in giving this lesson?" If the lesson was the first beatitude, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for their's is the kingdom of heaven," the aims might be stated as follows: To give the pupils a better understanding of God as ever-present Love; to show them man's unity with God; to bring them a clearer concept of heaven; to show them how we can use this beatitude today; to show how the receptive thought is blessed.

Then the class and the manner of presentation of the lesson were considered. It was seen that the class will be eager when the subject is presented in its true light. Since Love and Truth are attractive and all-powerful, one can know and prove that error or apathy cannot disturb the class. When one is guided by Mind, all is well.

The pupils are told of Jesus and his kindness and helpfulness to the people, and how his words help us today. The meaning of the Beatitudes is explained; for example, a dictionary meaning of "blessed" is "happy, blissful." After they have learned the Beatitudes and their meaning, a Biblical passage is sometimes used to illustrate the lesson, such as Jesus' parable of the grain of mustard seed, or the restoration of the Shunammite's son. Sometimes it has been found that though the lesson is faithfully prepared, it is best not to give it as planned, but to follow up the pupils' remarks.

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