How comforting it can be for Readers in branch Churches of Christ, Scientist, to know that though they may live in a place far from most other Christian Scientists—in Africa or Indonesia, for example—their church service has the support of every other Christian Science congregation throughout the world, because the Lesson-Sermon read in all branch churches on a particular Sunday is the same!
When I had the opportunity of serving as First Reader, I would start preparing by stating the spiritual truths and denying the claims of error that relate to the entire world, since the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly is for the whole world. It is interesting to note that when Mrs. Eddy chose the subjects for the Bible Lessons under God's direction, she did not select some topics for beginners and others for more experienced Christian Scientists, nor some for English-speaking people and others for Spanish-speaking students, nor some for young people and others for older people. She chose the same subjects for whoever you are wherever you are!
Modern theories of education would perhaps challenge such an approach, for they start with the belief in human learners—some clever, some stupid, some well educated, some uneducated, some English-speaking, some Kiswahili, and so on—endless divisions of limited mortals. Christian Scientists are learning that man is God's likeness—spiritual, complete, perfect. So the Reader can acknowledge that each Lesson-Sermon is appropriate for the needs of all mankind because all actually reflect God's intelligence and understand His Word. God does not include inadequacy in His creation of man.
