Some years ago, as an inquisitive newcomer to Christian Science, I asked the friend who introduced me to this religion, "What is this Lesson-Sermon you talk about, and why is it so important to you as a Christian Scientist?"

In the months that followed, this Lesson-Sermon ^{Found in the Christian Science Quarterly .} was carefully explained to me in its historical and healing actuality. The Bible Lesson—a weekly selection of Bible readings, together with pertinent passages from the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy—became the linchpin of my daily study and the source of much inspiration and healing.

Shortly thereafter I found another friend who had been desperately seeking a better way of life and could not find it in scholastic theology. He walked into a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, one Sunday morning, heard the Lesson-Sermon read as the core of the service, and later said, "That one hour and what I have since learned through the Lesson-Sermon have changed my whole life." The years that followed validated this original experience. He found his life enlarged and expanded. He credited his life's effectiveness to the consistent study of the healing message of Christ, Truth, which comes through the words of the Bible and Science and Health.

Students of the Bible Lesson can profoundly respect Mrs. Eddy, who was divinely guided to provide this systematic method of spiritual study—a method that would awaken thought to perceive the ever-present Christ and would bring forth, in constantly renewed statement and application, the direct, universal message of Truth. Not through traditional doctrines and methods but through the unfolding of spiritual ideas, Mrs. Eddy provided for the Lesson-Sermon. In presenting the absolute teaching and application of Christian Science in this logical manner, Mrs. Eddy described a way to elevate human consciousness to spiritual certainty and demonstration. We can look to study of the Lesson-Sermon as a means of spiritual development, an affirming of God's power, and an opening of our thought to perceive the vital elements and blessings of divine Life, Truth, and Love.

Because the truths contained in the Lesson-Sermon are an outcome of Mind, God, they speak directly and individually to all of us. They come to each of us through inspiration, and they need to be studied with inspiration.

There is no formula or rule laid down whereby to study and imbibe the truths contained in the lesson. One might think of it in terms of a line from the Lord's Prayer: "Give us this day our daily bread." ^{Matt. 6:11.} Its message is given to the whole world, but only as it reaches the individual will it be embodied in thought and life. When Jesus taught and fed the thousands, he met the needs of many individuals who came to him; but each had to receive his healing message. All of us need to make the message of every Lesson-Sermon our very special own, to work with it as the instrument of an ongoing spiritual education.

It is important for all students of the Bible Lesson to see how to come to the lesson, how to use this method of study, and, finally, how to apply spiritual truths to human needs. Of primary importance is our own preparation. Do we ready ourselves for a study by establishing the purpose of spiritual enlightenment? Do we seek specific truths to apply in healing work? Or do we approach our study as if just following a rule in line of duty? A merely dutiful approach would blunt our spontaneity and the joy of discovery.

The more we grasp the message of divine Love in each Lesson-Sermon, the more we see that unfolding spiritual vision is not gained by reading thoughtlessly and prayerlessly. Routine reading freezes out inspiration. We must be eager to discern the spiritual insights of Truth sufficiently to heal ourselves and others. Mrs. Eddy writes: "We crave the privilege of saying to the sick, when their feebleness calls for help, 'Rise and walk.' We rejoice to say, in the spirit of our Master, 'Stretch forth thy hand, and be whole!' " ^{Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 369-370.} Our lesson furnishes the spiritually intelligent facts that heal the sick in mind and body. We must detect and repudiate the worldly defiance of truth that would mesmerize us into accepting the letter without the spirit of demonstration. We should vigorously expect great good as we subscribe to the truths of Christian Science.

The next step of our participation in the lesson experience is the reading itself. If our heart is hungry, we can receive fresh truths from each section. Reading is a give-and-take experience, in which we give the spiritual-mindedness we've fostered, and receive proportionately. It is a listening to our real Mind, God.

Every recurring study of a Lesson-Sermon offers new views of truths that are infinite in meaning and application. Anyone can benefit if he approaches the reading as an opportunity to hear Truth speaking to him. And whatever exists essentially in Truth can be put into operation practically.

A young man and his wife found this to be so. They had a keen desire to go into business for themselves. Though they knew little about starting a business, they trusted in God and decided to initiate the necessary steps. But funds dwindled quickly. Bills were often larger than income. Problems with deadlines began to mount. At times despair set in, but they resolutely knew the answer lay in their deeper study of the Bible Lessons. The wife said, "I realized that if I prayerfully read the lesson before the beginning of our long workdays (often we worked six days a week), I would find not only the spiritual but the practical solutions I needed. Many times it looked impossible to pay our bills; even the night before they were due we could see no source of funds. But after receiving the lesson's truths in the morning, we found we would have enough."

The business grew steadily and today has many employees and an excellent reputation in its field of service. The couple well understood the direct link between their business experience and their putting into practice the prayerful, daily study of the Lesson-Sermon. They proved—and continue to prove—this statement in the Christian Science textbook so applicable to our Lesson-Sermon research: "The devotion of thought to an honest achievement makes the achievement possible. Exceptions only confirm this rule, proving that failure is occasioned by a too feeble faith." ^{Science and Health, p. 199.}

Who has not wrestled with a flagging heart and then come to the Bible Lesson and found the freedom and peace he or she so desperately needed to carry on? It is mortal mind's resistance to Truth that would have us turn to mere material reasoning and approaches for the solution to our problems. This lesson, read earnestly, lifts us above the worldly denial of spirituality to spiritually inspired expansiveness of thought and action. Mental barrenness or despair is a temptation of world thought and not to be accepted. Only in divine Mind do we find the animus of spirituality, which fulfills our expectations for enlightenment.

A study of the Lesson-Sermon is an adventure in discovering divine Love, with its infinite resources for each of us. The lesson includes divine Mind's definition of its own truths; it embodies God's continuing revelation of the grand realities of Life and Truth; it unfolds the divine Principle of Science as practiced by Christ Jesus.

The effects of each individual Bible Lesson are enhanced through the spiritual understanding of each one who studies it. The substance of individual thought present in each Sunday service goes forth to bless the earth. All mankind benefits when our thought is consecrated to Truth through understanding the message of these Lesson-Sermons. How desperate is the world's need for individuals who can bring the healing truth to mankind! What more vital work is there for each of us to perform as a student of the Science of Mind!