Article February 17, 1951 Issue

[Three branch church Sunday School teachers share with us in this column some of their experiences in teaching the Commandments and the Beatitudes.]

Spiritual Significance Paramount

Perhaps many teachers, like myself, question at times whether the Commandments and the Beatitudes should be taught in their order, also whether all of the Commandments should be learned before taking up the Beatitudes. I suppose that most teachers expect their pupils to learn the Commandments and the Beatitudes in their proper order, but I have found that this can be accomplished without holding to a certain routine. Since the spiritual significance of the lessons is of first importance, I take up whatever lesson is thought to be most needed at the time.

Now and then I have asked myself whether the little children should be expected to learn all of the longer commandments. Only once in my experience in teaching the littlest ones has a child passed along to another class knowing all of the Ten Commandments. In this case they were learned with the help of the pupil's mother and older brother. However, it is natural to expect that the little ones will gradually learn the letter of the Commandments while being instructed in their spiritual significance.

These lessons, of course, are taught to the little ones in their simpler meanings so that step by step they will experience a continual unfoldment of good. In these lessons they learn to distinguish between the real and the unreal, and by practicing what they learn, they find that the Commandments, the Beatitudes, and the Lord's Prayer, when they are understood and utilized, demonstrate God's loving provision for their well-being.

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