Speaking of the children who had contributed to the building of the original edifice of The Mother Church and to whom she dedicated "Pulpit and Press," Mary Baker Eddy says (p. 8), "Some of these lambs my prayers had christened, but Christ will rechristen them with his own new name."

The function of the Christian Science Sunday School is to fulfill this purpose of rechristening the children, and its entire work is to this end. To the extent that teachers and officers consistently know each child by the "new name" and nature which Christian Science reveals to that extent does the Sunday, school succeed in its mission.

As in other phases of church activity, there is the temptation in work for the Sunday school to measure success merely by human standards, which are often both misleading and superficial: for example, the number of pupils in attendance or the number of new pupils entering. Not that these, when favorable, are objectionable. But have we ever been able to define a spiritual concept by material standards without, in belief, limiting and restricting it?

As in everything else it touches, Christian Science demands of us a new standpoint in our Sunday school work, and discipline of thought is required in departing from the old standpoint. What is the all-important thing going on in the Christian Science Sunday School? It is the appearing of the Christ in all its incomparable glory as the innate spiritual understanding of each pupil comes to light.

The true growth that we all cherish and all love to see is this growth in spiritual understanding —the unfolding and natural recognition by each pupil that he himself is in his true being the man Mrs. Eddy has defined on page 475 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." Can this growth, which may begin as gently as the dawn, but is destined to go on forever, be measured, limited, or numbered?

If at this point the human mind persists in its standpoint by saying, "Yes, but we must measure our progress humanly," we can find encouragement in two statements by Mrs. Eddy in "Unity of Good" (pp. 11, 12): "Jesus stooped not to human consciousness nor to the evidence of the senses;" "Jesus required neither cycles of time nor thought in order to mature fitness for perfection and its possibilities. He said that the kingdom of heaven is here, and is included in Mind; that while ye say. There are yet four months, and then cometh the harvest. I say. Look up, not down, for your fields are already white for the harvest; and gather the harvest by mental, not material processes."

As a result, we discover that when we do think of the Sunday school and of our work from this correct standpoint of spiritual recognition, the attendance, the order, and the responsiveness in the classes become better. We have often proved in overcoming a physical difficulty or in solving a business problem that when we have stopped trying to solve it from within the mesmeric limits of mortal mind, and have listened to divine Mind's decrees, we have experienced the untroubled and unimpeachable perfection of Mind. Just so with the Sunday school.

We have perhaps accustomed ourselves to being radical in our attitude toward these so-called personal problems. We can be just as radical in our standpoint when considering the welfare and condition of the Sunday school. Our viewpoint should transcend the merely human one of taking someone small in years or in understanding and helping him to acquire certain spiritual truths. Our work is primarily a question of disciplining our own thought to behold the pure, ageless, and measureless Christlike nature of man and acknowledging it to be God's likeness. When this is realized, both teacher and pupil experience inspiration.

In a most arresting way Mrs. Eddy hints the possibilities in store for us when we are spiritually bold enough to break away from the traditional viewpoint toward what are customarily called little children. "At first." she writes (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 164). "the babe Jesus seemed small to mortals; but from the mount of revelation, the prophet beheld it from the beginning as the Redeemer, who would present a wonderful manifestation of Truth and Love." And a few lines farther on she continues: "As the Wisemen grew in the understanding of Christ, the spiritual idea, it grew in favor with them. Thus it will continue as it shall become understood until man be found in the actual likeness of his Maker. Their highest human concept of the man Jesus, that portrayed him as the only Son of God the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and Truth, will become so magnified to human sense, by means of the lens of Science, as to reveal man collectively, as individually, to be the son of God."

Mrs. Eddy's definition of "children" in the Glossary of Science and Health (p. 582) offers further enlightenment and is worthy of frequent study.

The magnitude and scope of our work in the Sunday school and its immense possibilities are as yet almost unfathomed and unperceived. The mighty power of one spiritual idea, grasped and understood by one student, kindles a light whose ever-widening glow and radiance can bring healing to him, to his environment, and therefore to what is called the world in which he lives. For can progress of any description, social, political, intellectual, or moral, come in any other way than by means of individual thought which, has become truly enlightened and thus gained power to quicken the thought of others?

In the clear light which Mrs. Eddy's teaching gives us we perceive the true meaning of that beautiful word "christening." as quoted earlier in this article, and its inevitable fulfillment in the Christian Science Sunday School. Thus we may fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah (Isa. 8: 18), "Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion."