SETTING on one side the obvious merit and use of ordinary education, the great need of the world today is spiritual education. One may say that spiritual values are, generally speaking, but dimly perceived, and are therefore woefully neglected. Even much of that which passes for spiritual teaching is largely adulterated with material misconceptions. Man, for instance, is usually conceived of as being mostly material, but with a germ of spirituality which may on occasion gain a precarious ascendancy over animal propensities. Thus the average person has come to regard himself largely as a creature of anatomy, who has little or nothing to do with spiritual things. What wonder, then, that men resort to strictly material methods in the attempt to overcome the varied ills which afflict them because of those very beliefs!
On page 381 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says, "Ignorant of our God-given rights, we submit to unjust decrees, and the bias of education enforces this slavery." This statement goes directly to the heart of the seeming existence of and the remedy for evil. Evil, or error, is essentially negative in its nature. It is no more a positive entity than is darkness, and it is axiomatic that a single ray of light will pierce the densest darkness.
Correct teaching concerning God, man, and the universe will ultimately destroy all material concepts concerning creation; and when this comes to pass, spiritual harmony and beauty will be universally and permanently recognized. In this process of spiritual evolution, mankind will have to unlearn all that it has learned solely through the material senses. What a different world this would be if half the attention now paid to corporeal sense were devoted to revealing man as the child of God, Spirit, and as therefore purely spiritual in origin, in being, and in destiny!
