Servicemen in the field as well as students in schools and colleges are discovering that the educational process is a continuous one, and that it does not halt with the attainment of any particular rating, rank, or grade. In practically all branches of military service, men and women are either studying on their own initiative or taking courses which will aid them in better fulfilling their assignments. Many of these courses, like those in any school, are studded with examinations which must be satisfactorily passed if the students are to take their designated places in the war effort.
Different types of examinations are set up to test comprehension. The student of Christian Science, knowing that real comprehension is the understanding of God, divine Mind, as the only source of intelligence and ability, wisely keeps this fact before his thought whenever he is faced with an examination. So doing, he is establishing in his thought the correct basis upon which to pursue further studying, metaphysical or otherwise, which seems requisite.
Every student is familiar with the all too frequent suggestion that if he does not succeed in passing this or that examination, the whole course of his experience will be changed unfavorably. This suggestion arises out of fear of failure, a bogy which the Christian Scientist quickly learns to eliminate from thought. The Scriptures contain many reassuring messages concerning the overcoming of fear, one of which points out the fact that fear is unreal: "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind" (II Tim. 1:7). If God did not create fear, we can account for it only as an erroneous suggestion of mortal mind; and since it is only a suggestion, we can swiftly dismiss it from thought. How? By accepting and dwelling upon what God has bestowed upon His children: power, love, and "a sound mind." The consciousness of the ever-availability of these gifts will abolish all traces of apprehension, inadequacy, fatigue, and possible resentment.
