Article June 20, 1953 Issue

True Concept of Children

[From a Sunday School teacher in England]

On being appointed to teach in the Sunday School I felt uncertain as to my ability to do the work, not having had any experience in teaching children.

The first two Sundays were difficult. The pupils fidgeted, looked around at the other classes, and grinned at one another. They seemed to take little interest in the lesson, and I felt a sense of opposition instead of receptivity to the things of the Spirit, which robbed the work of joy and satisfaction.

At the end of the second Sunday I saw that I must place my work on a higher basis. After prayerful work for guidance I was led to pages 582 and 583 of the Glossary in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy where we find the definition of "children" from both the spiritual and the material point of view. The definition of the material concept reads, "Sensual and mortal beliefs; counterfeits of creation, whose better originals are God's thoughts, not in embryo, but in maturity; material suppositions of life, substance, and intelligence, opposed to the Science of being." In the words "opposed to the Science of being" I recognized the error that claimed to oppose the Science in which I had been called upon to give instruction, and this uncovering showed clearly that I had been unwittingly accepting the material concept of children instead of the spiritual or true concept as set forth in that part of the definition which reads, "The spiritual thoughts and representatives of Life, Truth, and Love."

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