In 1895 an announcement from Mrs. Eddy was published in the October issue of the Journal. It read in part: "I hereby notify the loyal Christian Scientists who use the Bible, and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, as their text books, to organize immediately a Sunday School for the children." The Christian Science Journal, October 1895, p. 268. (Also see Clifford P Smith, Historical Sketches from the Life of Mary Baker Eddy and the History of Christian Science [Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1941], pp. 191-192.) With this directive, Mrs. Eddy provided the means for each Church of Christ, Scientist, to help its young people grow spiritually. It is natural for us to share our understanding of God with young people, to help them develop the practical ability to demonstrate Christ, Truth. We want to equip them to reject the aggressive pretensions of materiality and to recognize, instead, their unfolding spiritual selfhood. The presence of a vital Sunday School is necessary to a vital church—and to the Cause of Christian Science.
Mrs. Eddy's call to organize the Sunday School was in accord with the teachings of the Bible. In Deuteronomy we read: "Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you .... And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children." Deut. 6:1, 7. Proverbs says, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Prov. 22:6. As young people learn to apply Christian Science, they are supporting church activity and they are preparing for church membership.
Isn't it interesting that Mrs. Eddy addressed her announcement to "Christian Scientists who use the Bible, and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, as their text books"? The most direct link between Sunday School and church is the common truth that we study and demonstrate! The very same things that are studied in Sunday School—the Scriptures, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, with its spiritual interpretation, the Sermon on the Mount, the Bible Lessons from the Christian Science Quarterly—are also central to adult study. The student who enrolls in our Sunday School begins a course in the Bible, along with the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mrs. Eddy, that continues throughout his church experience.
