Article March 18, 1961 Issue

Meeting a Boy's Spiritual Needs

Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, writes in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 161): "To the senses, Jesus was the son of man: in Science, man is the son of God. The material senses could not cognize the Christ, or Son of God: it was Jesus' approximation to this state of being that made him the Christ-Jesus, the Godlike, the anointed." And farther on she says: "Of the lineage of David, like him he went forth, simple as the shepherd boy, to disarm the Goliath. Panoplied in the strength of an exalted hope, faith, and understanding, he sought to conquer the three-in-one of error: the world, the flesh, and the devil" (pp. 162, 163).

Every Sunday School teacher must learn how essential it is to discern the Christliness of the child of God and to recognize the spiritual potential and capacity of each pupil. This recognition inspires the teacher to pray for the spiritual insight and intuition which will enable him to take the things of Spirit into the child's world. It is the teacher's rewarding privilege to guide his pupils in gaining the spiritual understanding and strength which will equip them to meet today's challenge of materialism.

A Sunday School teacher writes of a modern ten-year-old David in her class who had gained this spiritual strength. The boy had been excused from health classes in school because his parents had presented to the principal an exemption slip which released him as a Christian Scientist from this study. The other children became unhappy because the boy appeared to have been given a special privilege. The teacher asked the young Scientist if he would like to explain to the class why he was being excused from the course. Jimmy courageously stood up before the class to tell of his convictions: "It's just that we don't believe that man is made up of flesh and bones. Christian Science teaches us that man is spiritual."

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