"THE entire education of children should be such as to form habits of obedience to the moral and spiritual law, with which the child can meet and master the belief in so-called physical laws, a belief which breeds disease." Thus writes Mary Baker Eddy on page 62 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."
In making provision for instruction in the Christian Science Sunday School, Mrs. Eddy specifies in the Manual of The Mother Church that the pupils shall be taught the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer and its spiritual interpretation, and the Sermon on the Mount. She further provides (Art. XX, Sect. 3), "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." Our Leader foresaw the divine protection that this teaching would bring into the pupils' lives.
The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount are the foundation upon which the teaching of the moral and spiritual law is based in the Christian Science Sunday School. Through spiritual understanding the pupils learn how to pray, and through daily obedience to the moral and spiritual law they find that their prayers are answered, and answered aright.
As the Sunday School pupil is taught spiritual truths and is shown how he can use them, they become part of his life; and he cannot lose them any more than the child in school who learns the rules of arithmetic and how to apply them can ever lack them.
A Christian Science practitioner answered the telephone one evening and heard a mother's alarmed voice. Her little son had just drunk something harmful, and the frightened mother said: "It had an immediate ill effect on him. Please help us." As the practitioner lifted her thought in prayer to God, she clearly realized that since this little lad was in reality an idea of God, divine Love, he was governed and surrounded by Love, and that therefore no harm could come to him. The practitioner silently expressed her gratitude for the Sunday School which was established as a result of Mrs. Eddy's spiritual vision. She declared that as God's child this little one was safe, that only purity belonged to the child of God, and that no belief of impurity could harm him. She realized that man can drink only of the river of His pleasures, and she claimed Jesus' blessing (Matt. 5:8), "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." The practitioner further saw that man feels only the presence of God, good. Soon the telephone rang again, and this time the mother's glad voice rang out: "The child is all right. He is healed." Declaration and realization of the truth contained in the sixth beatitude had brought the healing. The little boy was in his place in Sunday School the next day, joyously learning more about the love of God.
The Sunday School pupil is taught that he can have no other gods before the living God, denned on page 465 of Science and Health as follows: "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love." The pupil learns that God's child cannot bow down to a graven image, such as a mind or life apart from God; nor can he fear, hate, or accept discord or sickness. He learns that God is, and that man cannot take His name, nature, in vain. He is taught to honor the name of God by reflecting Him each day in loving consideration, joy, helpfulness, and kindness to all. He learns that by being in his place in Sunday School he is expressing faithfulness and obedience and that loving and obeying God's commands help him to keep the Sabbath holy. Keeping one day holy aids him in hallowing every day.
Sunday School pupils are taught the value and rich reward of looking away from human things and persons and through spiritual sense seeing man as the image of Love. By being honest and just and by keeping their thoughts pure, they are obedient to the commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery" (Ex. 20:14). They are taught that because all good belongs to all God's children, there is in reality never any cause for stealing from another or envying another. The pupil discovers that man is God's witness, and as such he cannot be a false witness; he must witness only to good. Not to covet means to rejoice constantly in our brother's good.
In these simple ways the pupil lays hold on the moral and spiritual law, and in proportion to his understanding and loving of it this law governs his activities. As he finds out more about the kingdom of God, he will wish to give up wrong thoughts of self—to give up human will and be filled with righteousness. He learns that to be merciful is to love another as himself, and that by being unselfish and pure in thought, word, and deed he will bring healing and peace to those around him.
In a family where the moral law was broken by two members, one child prayed earnestly that in some manner the inharmonious condition might be corrected and healed. The child knew that her loved ones had erred, but she did not see any way in which she could help them. An unhappy state existed for some years. Later, however, when this child had grown to womanhood and had become interested in Christian Science, she saw what great blessings can be experienced through obedience to the moral and spiritual law. With the same earnest desire of her childhood days and with added understanding gained through the study of Christian Science, she found how the way for her loved ones could be made easier and more harmonious, and the young woman herself found happiness based on Truth and Love.
Later she was again confronted with a problem resulting from a broken moral law by a member of her immediate family, and her happiness was once more threatened. This time, however, she was grateful for a better understanding of the moral and spiritual law. This understanding sustained her and brought about a permanent healing of the problem. Many blessings followed: health, peace, and happiness came to the entire family.
The children in our Sunday School are learning to lay firm hold on the healing and protective law of God. This foundation in Truth will enable them to overcome "the belief in so-called physical laws, a belief which breeds disease." As the understanding of the moral and spiritual law unfolds in the consciousness of our Sunday School pupils and becomes the basis for thoughts and acts, the prophecy of Isaiah will be fulfilled (Isa. 33:20, 24), "Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation. . . . And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity."
