Youth—Their Star of Bethlehem, Their Way-shower, and Their Leader

Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, teaches that endless homage is due the great Way-shower, and the approach of the Christmas season affords special opportunity for teachers to remind their pupils of the debt of gratitude they owe to Christ Jesus, who was sent of God to bring a great light into a darkened world; also to remind them of their debt of gratitude to Mary Baker Eddy, who was called of God to bring forth again that long-hidden light—to bring to humanity the Comforter that Jesus promised.

That Christian Science is the second appearing of Christ on earth should be clear to the children, and it is the teacher's privilege throughout the year to help them to appreciate the significance of this great fact, to help them understand that Christian Science has come to establish Christ's kingdom on the earth. Also it is the teacher's privilege to keep before the pupils the fact that this age, which seems so fraught with chaos and fear, is blessed with a God-inspired book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," in which our great Leader has set forth in their finality the teachings of the Comforter, which Jesus said would abide with us forever.

What an incentive for study the pupil finds in knowing that the teachings of the Christian Science textbook will never be superseded, but will continue to unfold as he puts them into practice in his daily living. And what a sense of security he finds in knowing that Christian Science is the way of divine and eternal truth, entirely apart from the ever-changing theories of the human mind; that, in fact, it is the very light which was heralded by the star seen of Wisemen at the birth of the babe of Bethlehem.

Generally speaking, the youth of today is a thinker. He is abreast of the times. He is aware of humanity's restlessness. He is aware of the beliefs of fear and uncertainty that are abroad in the world, and, like his elders, consciously or unconsciously he is looking for security. Regarding this searching tendency of today's youth, one who is active in work which concerns the boys and girls of a large portion of the state in which she lives, has made the following statement: "Working with a few of the 17,000,000 youth untouched by religious training, I am appalled by the barrenness of their outlook, but thrilled by their eager search." And of youthful receptivity to the teachings of Christian Science our Leader writes (Science and Health, p. 236), "While age is halting between two opinions or battling with false beliefs, youth makes easy and rapid strides towards Truth."

There is ample evidence that many boys and girls today are ready and waiting for just what our Sunday School has to offer. In many of our Sunday Schools there are pupils who have glimpsed the light of Truth through the openness of their own thought and who have obtained permission to attend the Sunday School from parents who are not interested in Christian Science themselves.

A young student relates the following experience. When he was a very small child he was placed in the Sunday School of an orthodox denomination. On coming into his teens, however, he found that the Sunday School was not satisfying his desire to understand God, and when he was fifteen, his mother agreed that he might visit different Sunday Schools and then choose one for himself. He well remembers the joy of his first visit to the Christian Science Sunday School and the satisfaction which he found in learning that Christianity is Science and that there is a textbook through which this Science can be studied. He caught something of the significance of the second appearing of Christ and recognized at once that the way was open whereby he might grow in understanding of God.

Inseparable from the Christian Science textbook is the Bible. Children should learn to love and appreciate the Bible. And they naturally love it and value it when they understand that it is their chart of life and use it as such. Amid present-day exploiting of atomic power, so called, boys and girls rejoice to find in the Bible numerous illustrations of the supremacy of divine law in human affairs. The great works of the Master, as well as the works of prophets and apostles, studied in the light of the teachings of our textbook, show the pupil that in the Bible he has an unfailing chart that will direct him safely through any experience which the future may hold. Thus he learns to say with our Leader (Christ and Christmas, p. 53):

"As in blest Palestina's hour,
So in our age,
'Tis the same hand unfolds His power,
And writes the page."

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