Occasionally a Sunday School teacher may ask himself, "Am I teaching my pupils as our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, would have them taught?" Perhaps it was a question similar to this that brought forth the following statements in two letters written by members of Mrs. Eddy's secretarial staff, elucidating the By-Law "Subject for Lessons" (Manual of The Mother Church, Art. XX, Sect. 3), which specifies what the pupils should be taught first and what should follow. Below is a reprint of the letters as they appeared in the July 6, 1935, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel. One letter reads in part:

"When our Leader gave the By-Law on 'Subjects for Lessons' in the Sunday school, it was not her intention to limit Sunday school instruction to the routine of memorizing the letter of the designated portions of the Scripture. She meant that the children should be taught the meaning of the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer and its Spiritual Interpretation, and the Beatitudes.

"These spiritual fundamentals should be so set forth by means of practical illustrations and everyday examples of love, obedience, and good, that the child will catch their spirit, understand them, and as a result be interested in them.

"This work, you will readily perceive, requires consecrated and intelligent effort on the part of all connected with the Sunday school. It means the demonstration of that love which does things. To teach a child the words, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me,' is a comparatively easy task. To teach a child the meaning of that commandment so thoroughly that he can and will prove in his living that he actually has no other gods before good, is the grand privilege of the Christian Science Sunday School teacher."

The text of the other letter follows: "In reply to your letter of the 4th inst., you may teach the children in the Sunday school anything in the Scriptures or in Christian Science that they can understand. Your authority for this is Art. XX, Sect. 2, of the Manual. Sect. 3 tells how to begin, or rather what to teach them first. After that, you may teach them anything that is absolute Christian Science, putting it to them in as simple a manner as possible, or in other words, adapt what you teach to a juvenile class. The Quarterly Lessons usually contain good material for this work. A Sunday school teacher should be governed by wisdom, and teach the children in the Sunday school the same as she would instruct her own children if she had any."

This letter bears the notation, "The abover letter was practically dictated, and was read and approved by Mrs. Eddy."

According to these elucidating statements, the definitions of the lessons given in the Manual, although specific, are not restrictive. The first lessons set forth fundamental truths which underlie all the teachings of Christian Science. Hence, the teacher has all of the Bible and our Leader's writings to draw upon in helping the pupils to understand and apply the lessons while committing them to memory. In the teaching, however, it is important that the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer with its spiritual interpretation, and the Beatitudes, which constitute the first lessons, be kept before the thought of the pupils. If this is not done, that is, if the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy are taught without specific reference to these important lessons, can it be said then that the children are being taught as the Manual requires?

The second letter quoted above similarly points to the broad scope of the next lessons. Here again the teacher has all of the Bible and our Leader's writings to draw upon in teaching in a simple manner lessons adapted to a juvenile class. It is to be remembered, however, that according to the Manual, an essential part of the lessons is questions and answers. Although pupils should be allowed to read passages from the Bible and Science and Health as a part of the question and answer procedure, there is no provision for a consecutive reading of the Lesson-Sermon from the Christian Science Quarterly in the class.

It is expected that pupils, on leaving the Sunday School at the age of twenty, shall have learned to become earnest and intelligent students of the Lesson-Sermon. Hence, the questions and answers of the next lessons usually are based on the current Lesson-Sermon. But the citations of the Lesson-Sermon need not be regarded as the sole source material for the lessons. A number of Biblical episodes, parables, or other portions of Scripture may be used in teaching any one lesson. Likewise any passages from Science and Health may be brought into a lesson. And, although the lessons are taught from the Bible and Science and Health and no books other than these are brought into the classes, in their questions and answers teachers and pupils may refer to passages from other authorized Christian Science literature and may quote, either verbatim or in substance, from these sources.

With such teaching under our Leader's guidance our boys and girls should complete their Sunday School work fully prepared to meet the situations of their time. They should have begun already to build their careers on a spiritual basis. They should have learned to build as the wise man who, according to the parable of Christ Jesus (Matt. 7:24, 25), "built his house upona rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock."