Historic Lesson-Sermons

Mary Baker Eddy states in the Manual of The Mother Church that the Sunday Lesson-Sermon is "a lesson on which the prosperity of Christian Science largely depends" (p. 31). She also tells us that "...our Sunday Lessons, are of inestimable value to all seekers after Truth" (Mis. 114:1).

The following is a brief history of the evolvement of the Christian Science Lesson-Sermons:

1872: The first Bible lessons which Christian Scientists studied were known as the International Sunday School Bible Lessons (also called the International Series) published by The Sunday School Society, organized in 1791 at Philadelphia. At The Sunday School Society convention in 1872 a plan was adopted for uniform Bible lessons for Protestant churches to use in Bible study.

1889: Mrs. Eddy appoints a committee of four (Julia Bartlett, Ira O. Knapp, William Johnson, Rev. Lanson Norcross) to prepare comments and notes in leaflet form on the International Sunday-School Lessons from the Christian Science standpoint.

1890: In April the first Christian Science Quarterly is published, using the subjects of the International Series, with references from the Bible and correlative passages from Science and Health selected by the four-person committee. Later Mrs. Eddy introduces her own Lesson subjects.

1891: Mrs. Eddy submits an "Order of exercise" for Christian Science churches, which includes readings from the Bible and Science and Health, as well as a sermon.

1894: Mrs. Eddy ordains the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures as pastor of The Mother Church: "I, Mary Baker Eddy, ordain the Bible, and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Pastor over The Mother Church, - The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass., - and they will continue to preach for this Church and the world" (Manual of The Mother Church, p. 58).

Daisette McKenzie recalls for us Mrs. Eddy's words: "My students were preaching and were sending me copies of their sermons. They grew worse and worse. Finally one came which was so great a mixture that if I had not known the fact, I should not have been able to tell whether the writer were a Christian Scientist, a spiritualist or a theosophist. I said to myself, 'Something must be done and at once.' I withdrew from all other work, and in solitude and almost ceaseless prayer I sought and found God's will. At the end of three weeks I received the answer, and it came to me as naturally as dawns the morning light. 'Why, of course, the Bible and Science and Health'" (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, first series, pp. 47-48).

1895: Mrs. Eddy declares the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures as pastor for all branch churches.

1897: The first "Explanatory Note" appears in the Quarterly. (Mrs. Eddy's phrase "authorized by Christ" was replaced in the October-December 1910 Quarterly with her words "divinely authorized.")

1898: Mrs. Eddy introduces twenty-six Lesson subjects for Sunday morning services in the July-September Quarterly. The International Series subjects are still used for afternoon services until several months later when they are completely discontinued.


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