Article April 15, 1961 Issue

Teaching with Authority

[From a Sunday School Teacher]

The analyzing and challenging attitude prevalent in human thought today needs to be intelligently and understanding dealt with by the teachers in our Sunday Schools. Their opportunity in this regard was graphically illustrated in a class of twelveand thirteen-year-olds while discussing a fundamental teaching of Christian Science. One child inquired, "But how do we know man is the image and likeness of God:'" Immediately other pupils asked: "Yes, how do we really know there is a God? How do we know we can believe what the Bible teaches? How do we know Christian Science is the truth?"

From the tone of this questioning the teacher saw that it presented a twofold challenge: the deep need of the pupils for reassurance, which must be supplied, and the subtle attempt of animal magnetism to undermine and discredit the Christ, which must be corrected. She touched briefly on each point raised so as not to leave any uncertainty with the pupils.

During the following weeks she humbly prayed about this problem, guided by the verse in Proverbs (3:5), "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." Without referring to the pupils' questions again, she watched for every opportunity to bring out, while working with the Lesson-Sermon, as outlined in the Christian Science Quarterly, the spiritual facts which would deepen their grasp of truth and turn them not only to past but to present examples of its application.

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