Article July 24, 1948 Issue

Teach Them to Pray

The Apostle Paul was keenly solicitous for the welfare of his youthful pupil Timothy. Although Timothy, who was born of a Greek father, had been trained in the Scriptures from childhood by a Jewish mother, we find his faithful teacher over and over exhorting him to steadfastness, courage, and vigilance. In his second epistle to Timothy, after pointing to the growing tendency of the age to depart from the truth, Paul admonished his pupil thus: "But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."

Like Paul, Sunday School teachers are keenly interested in the welfare of their pupils. They long to feel that the children will continue in the divine law and remember that the truth which they have learned in Sunday School and proved in a measure for themselves has come to them through the Comforter promised by Christ Jesus. In their solicitude teachers sometimes query, How can we protect the boys and girls from this or that erroneous influence? or, How can we help them so that they will take no step that may prove to be a deterrent to their interest or progress in Christian Science? An important part of the answer, certainly, is, Teach them to pray.

For this instruction our Leader has made wise provision. Along with the Commandments and Beatitudes she has included in the children's first lessons the Lord's Prayer with its spiritual interpretation as she has given it in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." It is the spirit which is inculcated in the Lord's Prayer that makes the lessons vital and practical. Without it the letter of the teaching is ineffectual and devoid of stability. It is like seed sown on barren soil, lacking in that which tends to nourish, strengthen, and stabilize.

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