Sunday School of The Mother Church
A great theologian, Phillips Brooks, once said, "The future of the race marches forward on the feet of little children." The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, has written (Pulpit and Press, p. 9), "Ah, children, you are the bulwarks of freedom, the cement of society, the hope of our race!"
The advancement and purification of the human race must come through a more spiritual concept and true knowledge of God. The fulfillment of this hope for progress and Godward gravitation will be attained in large measure through educating our children in habits of obedience to moral and spiritual law, thus equipping them to meet and master the belief in so-called physical laws with their downward tendencies towards sin and disease.
When the cornerstone of the Original Mother Church was laid, our Leader wrote as follows (Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 144, 145): "To-day I pray that divine Love, the life-giving Principle of Christianity, shall speedily wake the long night of materialism, and the universal dawn shall break upon the spire of this temple. The Church, more than any other institution, at present is the cement of society, and it should be the bulwark of civil and religious liberty."
Among the wide channels of The Mother Church, there is no more important activity than the Sunday school. The children of today are the church members of tomorrow, who "from twenty years old and upward" are appointed "to set forward the work of the house of the Lord" (Ezra 3:8). The solving of future world problems in the right way will depend largely upon the purity of their understanding of the divine Principle of Christian Science, and their ability to apply its rules to every phase of human living.
Christian Science calls every student in the Sunday school to a higher and wider state of experience—to higher and more spiritual motives, aims, and pursuits, higher ideals and higher joys.
How essential to the enlightenment and progress of the world is the realization of our Leader's vision as to the status of children! What a wonderful opportunity is afforded the Sunday school worker to guide these budding thoughts faithfully and lovingly to "a right apprehension of Him whom to know aright is Life eternal" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, Pref., p. vii), that they may indeed become "the hope of our race," and "the bulwarks of freedom."
Dr. Asa Gilbert Eddy, forsaking all to follow Christ in the light of this new revelation, and the first of our Leader's students to announce himself as a Christian Scientist, even in these early days perceived the children's need. He, under Mrs. Eddy's direction, organized and superintended the first Christian Science Sunday School.
God used the qualities of spiritual perception and moral courage as channels to aid Mrs. Eddy in her obedience to His call, not only "to proclaim His Gospel to this age," but also "to plant and water His vineyard" (Science and Health, Pref., p. xi).
Later on, when increasing numbers at Sunday morning services made a change in place of worship necessary, the congregation moved from Hawthorne Rooms in Boston to Chickering Hall. This occurred on Sunday, October 25, 1885 (see "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," p. 54), and on this date the nucleus of the present Mother Church Sunday School was formed.
Under the direction and guidance of divine Mind, growth has continued; under the same divine guidance, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science has given in our Church Manual the By-Laws governing the Sunday school. She has said of the Church Manual that it is "uniquely adapted to form the budding thought and hedge it about with divine Love" (Manual, Art. XXXV, Sect. 1). May not her words be applied to the Sunday school as well?
The Sunday school was Mrs. Eddy's demonstration, and in proportion as Christian Scientists love their Leader and obey the Manual will our Cause prosper and our efforts be blessed with success. Article XX of the Manual is specific and definite in its direction; its language is clear and unmistakable, and should be implicitly obeyed, lovingly and willingly. Love is the basis of obedience: love for God, for Christ Jesus, the Way-shower, and for His revelator to this age.
Pupils in our Sunday school should early be taught Mrs. Eddy's place in prophecy and revelation. A clear understanding of the Discoverer and revelator of Christian Science is absolutely essential to understand her revelation and to gain the ability to demonstrate the healing power of Truth and Love.
Pupils in our Sunday school come in response to the call of divine Love; and because Love, God, is omnipotent and omnipresent, there is no opposite power, forbidding them to hear and answer the call to come to the Christ, Truth.
Sunday school is an extension of the home, never a substitute for it; nor are teachers substitutes for parents. They cannot assume the duties belonging to parents in training children in ways of obedience to law and constituted authority, or in providing social contacts and activities, which have their place in the home, under the guidance of parents.
Taught to love our Leader, our young people will love Sunday school and fully appreciate its purpose, namely, to teach the Christ, Truth, alone. However, a most helpful unity of thought and purpose may be accomplished through the acquaintance of teachers with parents and home conditions. This mutual understanding will aid the child's spiritual growth in his study of Christian Science and practical application of spiritual truths.
Teaching in our Sunday schools is not only an opportunity, but a joyful privilege!
With earnest patience let us diligently study the Scriptures and our Leader's writings, that our thoughts and lives may be spiritualized. Then, like the elders of Israel, we shall send forth our young people of "twenty years old and upward," wearing "the breastplate of righteousness," bearing "the shield of faith" and "the sword of the Spirit." So equipped, they will be able, "as the servants of Christ," to do "the will of God."
