When I was in high school, we thought that we could prove anything by looking it up in a book. To us, if a reputable author said a thing was true, it was true. Today a high school student learns to ask where the author of the book got his information. We learned to "do" algebra. Today the student learns to understand algebra. It is no longer good enough to say that a certain process will solve an equation. Every step must be logically explained and proved and understood.

The new attitude of young people presents the Sunday School teacher and all others working to give Christian Science to the younger generation with a problem that must be solved. On the surface, the problem appears to be a lack of respect for authority. Actually, it is a sign of the changing thought of our time. Most of us grew up in the era when "the Bible tells me so" was all the authority we needed for any thing. Young people today want to know who said it, and how did he know?

When we were told that Mrs. Eddy said that something is true, we accepted it simply because we believed her to have the authority to make the statement. Young people today want to know why she said it how she knew, and whether it can he proved today.

We can answer our young people's questions. Every statement of truth given in the Bible and in our Leader's writings can be clearly explained—its origin, its authenticity, and its provability.

In a world that is being educated to reason out every step of its thinking, a Christian Scientist must be equipped to explain and to demonstrate the truth he believes and uses. He must learn to be a good healer, and he can do this only through love—love that fearlessly faces the problems and the questions the rest of the world faces.

A good healer is a shining light in a world of ignorance. As we teach our voting Christian Scientists to love God by expressing Christlike love toward their modern neighbors, learning to understand how they think and how to communicate with them in the language they understand, we equip them to let their light shine.

If a Sunday School class is bored with our explanations of the truths of Christian Science, it could well be that we need to identify ourselves more closely with the idea of Love. Perhaps we are like the Pharisee who, in Jesus' parable, went up into the temple to pray and said (Luke 18:11), "God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men," and he enumerated all of the proper things he did. But the publican, "standing afar of,...smote upon his breast, saying. God lie merciful to me a sinner." And the Master said that this man was "justified rather than the other."

It is not merely doing the proper things that makes us good Christian Scientists; it is actually living the love that heals. If we are failing to reach our young people, we may need to recognize our negligence of the vital needs of modern young thought, and take steps to learn to communicate with these future adults in ways that they will understand and will find challenging and practical.

Young people today live in an exciting world. The subject we have to present to them is not something abstract or apart from that world. It is the explanation of the very forces that govern their bodies and their lives, of the conditions they encounter and the means for dealing with these conditions, and of the energies available to them to triumph in every aspect of experience.

If young people understand what Christian Science is and how directly it affects them, they will not resist it but be hungry for it. If they do not understand this, it could well be that we who are presenting it to them do not understand it, for if we did, we would love enough to find a way to reach their thought.

Every young person is deeply concerned about something. It may be his schoolwork, his social life, his relationship with his parents, anxiety over his own security, an interest in sports or in some other specialized field of human activity. A Sunday School lesson can always be a lesson on the subject of the pupils' interest. If there are ten people in the class, with ten different topics of primary interest, the lessons as provided in the Manual of The Mother Church by Mrs. Eddy (see Art. XX, Sect. 3) always provide truths and laws and rules which apply directly to the pupils' problems.

In this Section of the Manual, after giving the first lessons, Mrs. Eddy writes, "The next lessons consist of such questions and answers as are adapted to a juvenile class, and may be found in the Christian Science Quarterly Lessons, read in Church services."

If this By-Law is obeyed, the teacher will succeed in reaching the pupils. If the questions are adapted to the class being taught, the subject under discussion is never abstract, never uninteresting but always the one topic these youngsters want to discuss that day. If we live the spirit of this By-Law in all of our dealings with our young people, we shall overcome our failure to interest them, and the prosperity of Christian Science will be ensured.

Carl J. Welz