Two things are true about invitations. They arouse interest and always put the question to the thought of the recipient, "Shall I accept, or shall I not?"

At every Sunday and Wednesday service in Christian Science churches an invitation is extended to those under twenty years of age to attend Sunday School.

Is the invitation merely one to attend Sunday School classes until a certain age? No, it is more than that. It is an invitation to every young thinker to gain spiritual enlightenment regarding God and His universe, including man, through consecrated study of the Bible and of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. Through discussion with teachers and classmates of the truths contained in the textbooks, he is better prepared later to take his place in human society.

It is natural for parents or guardians to make decisions for young children. As the human sense of childhood is left behind, however, everyone desires, and rightfully so, to make decisions for himself. Respecting the wishes of parents is always right, but the pupil learns in the Christian Science Sunday School that true obedience does not mean a blind following of human instructions; it means willing obedience, based upon spiritual understanding of God as Principle, divine Love. The young Christian Scientist soon discovers that the right to think things out for himself on the basis of Christian Science is one of his most precious privileges. Knowing, as he does, that God is the only governing Mind, he can be confident that his prayerful efforts to arrive at right decisions will be rewarded by the light of divine intelligence, which unfailingly shows him the way.

By some, the invitation extended by the Christian Science Sunday School is accepted joyously, with never a thought of refusal. For others, however, there may be a period of uncertainty. Human reasoning has many persuasive arguments. There is, for example, the argument of pressing school activities or of new and interesting social obligations, ever increasing with the approach to adulthood. Another argument, posing in one of mortal mind's favorite disguises, is that of self-esteem. This argument tells the young thinker that he has grown beyond the need for Sunday School, having already learned the things which are taught there.

The wise youth learns to challenge every suggestion which comes to him thus: "Is it friend or foe? Will it help or hinder me in bringing out my highest spiritual ideals?" He finds that the answers do not lie with fallible, human reasoning, but with divine Mind, the all-knowing and all-wise. As he strives to hear the voice of Truth, his thought turns naturally to the Bible and to that great Teacher, Christ Jesus, who taught and practiced man's oneness with God, Spirit.

The youth of today is faced with human knowledge such as no generation before him has ever had. Material scientists and thinkers of this age have placed their attainments at his feet. He finds that great issues are at stake, and that great is his need for preparedness to meet them by true knowledge of the facts of being.

Christ Jesus, the Way-shower, pointed out that no need of mankind is so important as the need for spiritual understanding. He once told an inquiring young man to sell all that he had and follow him. And when a young woman sat at his feet while her sister busied herself with tasks which seemed more important at the time, the Master lovingly rebuked the sister with the words (Luke 10:41, 42), "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." The world needs clear and honest thinkers; it needs leaders who, seeing beyond chaos and confusion, can solve world problems through an understanding of God, divine Mind, and of man in His likeness.

To the youth who may be undecided regarding this invitation to attend the Christian Science Sunday School, Mrs. Eddy offers a potent argument on page 128 of Science and Health: "A knowledge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher realms. It raises the thinker into his native air of insight and perspicacity." And in her "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 110) she poses a question which the youth of today might prayerfully ponder: "What grander ambition is there than to maintain in yourselves what Jesus loved, and to know that your example, more than words, makes morals for mankind!"