Article October 20, 1956 Issue

A Practical Lesson on Love

[From a teacher in a branch church Sunday School]

"What is Love?" This question startled a Sunday School class of ten and eleven-year-old pupils out of their complacency. It was my first Sunday with this class. The superintendent had explained that the pupils were of the opinion that they knew all about the "first lessons,"' which are defined in Article XX, Section 3, of the Manual of The Mother Church by Mary Baker Eddy. She asked me to find out whether or not they actually understood and had grasped the simpler meanings of the divine Principle, Love, which they had been taught.

At the beginning of the class period I told the pupils that I had been informed that they thought they knew the "first lessons" thoroughly. I proceeded to conduct an oral examination to find out what they knew. First the question was asked, "What is God?" All of the pupils, one after another, fluently repeated both definitions as found in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, where we read first, on page 465, "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love," and secondly, on page 587, where we find this definition of Deity: "God. The great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence."

I then said, "Among the words that you have named to define God is the term 'Love.' Now tell me, what is Love?" The children hurriedly looked through the Glossary in the textbook, but found no definition for the term. They insisted, "We know what Love is but we just can't tell you, for we don't know the words to describe Love." This explanation was not accepted, and then they replied, "Why, of course, we know what Love is, because we love our parents and our parents love us."

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