A visitor to the Christian Science Sunday School, which then included both adults and children, offered this newcomer's view, in the January 1886 Journal (pp. 185–186).
... The Sunday-school was in session, just before two o'clock. Those present were mostly adults, but the assemblage numbered in all 113, of whom eleven were officers and teachers. An earnest spirit prevailed. Mr. Murphy, the Superintendent, gave out a hymn, which the children sang.... The Lord's Prayer was repeated in unison, firmly and distinctly. A chapter was read. No general lesson was given, however, and the children went into the anteroom for their lesson, the other attendants grouping themselves into classes.
Courteously bidden to enter any class, I sat in the front seat, along with those under the leadership of Edward A. Bailey, a young gentleman recently from Maine. They were studying the second chapter of the Fourth Gospel—John's, as it is commonly called—and considering particularly the expulsion of the traffickers from the courtyard of the Temple .... Both ladies and gentlemen expressed themselves freely, and showed appreciation of their subject. The queries of strangers were kindly answered. That class, and all the others, were in full tide when the bell called the school to order, for a hymn and dismissal.
