Editorial April 3, 1948 Issue

AFTER SUNDAY SCHOOL—WHAT?

John Randall Dunn

In the Manual of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, was divinely led to specify twenty years as the age limit for pupils in the Christian Science Sunday School. The wisdom of this direction may not be apparent to many young people who would like to continue indefinitely in the Sunday School; but prayerful consideration of the Manual provision generally reveals that this By-Law, instead of proving to be a limitation, is in reality a protection to the individual's growth in the study of Christian Science.

By the time he has arrived at the age of twenty years, a pupil in the Christian Science Sunday School should be well grounded in the spiritual understanding of the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, and the Lord's Prayer with its spiritual interpretation. He has had a thorough drilling in studying and analyzing the weekly Lesson-Sermons in the Christian Science Quarterly. He therefore should feel equipped to try his wings and make his own demonstrations in Christian Science.

Of course, a well-taught Sunday School pupil has learned from his reading of the Church Manual that it is possible for children twelve years old or over to become members of The Mother Church; and it is gratifying to find that many pupils have availed themselves of this privilege before leaving the Sunday School. Some branch churches admit young people in their teens; but a very natural step for our young people to take when the days of Sunday School are behind them is to apply for branch church membership and in time to have the privilege of going back to the Sunday School as teachers, or into other wholesome church activity which may open for them.

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