Article January 18, 1947 Issue

Sunday School

Home Assignments

"I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food" (Job 23:12). So said Job in his search for the true God. In the working out of his human problems he learned the value, yes the necessity, of feeding thought with the Word of God. To teach a child to spiritualize thought by daily study of the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, '"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, is to bring him to an open door that cannot be closed. In a magazine article entitled "Youth and Young Manhood." published in 1907. and republished in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, appeals (p. 274). "Dear reader, right thinking, right feeling, and right acting—honesty, purity, unselfishness—in youth tend to success intellectuality, and happiness in manhood." Well-taught pupils readily learn that the Sunday School lesson is food for daily contemplation, and begin early to form lasting habits of regular and systematic study of Christian Science. Such habits establish a foundation for "right thinking, right feeling, and right acting."

Special assignments for home study, prayerfully planned, are an aid to this foundational building. In the primary classes an assignment of a simple Bible story, which the parents are asked to read to the child, usually is enthusiastically received. Included in the assignment may be other passages from the Bible and our Leader's writings, such as a definition from the Glossary of our textbook, or a commandment or a beatitude to be memorized.

Older pupils respond readily to assignments relative to a certain Biblical character or a Biblical episode. Sometimes these are given serially. Besides the selfless life and the unparalleled works of Christ Jesus, these pupils usually follow with great interest the illustrious career of Joseph: the great accomplishments of Moses, whom they have learned to love as the Hebrew Lawgiver: the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem under the leadership of the intrepid Nehemiah; the various episodes in connection with the founding of the Christian churches as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, and many other Biblical narratives. The Psalms, which in their spiritual import are loved by children of all ages, and other portions of Scripture, may also be included from time to time in home assignments.

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