"Academics of the right sort are requisite. Observation, invention, study, and original thought are expansive and should promote the growth of mortal mind out of itself, out of all that is mortal." In these words on page 195 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy significantly evaluates human education.
The need and desire for skill and learning in many departments of human activity are common to all people. The fields of learning extend from training for trades to cultivating one's taste for the fine arts and in the final analysis include preparing for useful activity in human society. This being so, may we not profitably ask: Where does true knowledge originate? Is its origin human or divine, material or spiritual? Is it the gift of God or a product of the brain? Is real knowledge based on unerring Principle or is it a mass of disorderly, ephemeral evidence obtained from the material senses? Christian Science declares emphatically that God is infinite Mind, and that the only true man manifests this Mind; that God is the all-knowing, and that man is His reflection; that infinite Mind must be unlimited, and that man, the perfect image of this Mind, cannot be limited in that which he knows; and furthermore, that Mind expresses itself in intelligence and an orderly unfoldment of ideas and does not give forth purposeless, wandering, unrelated, contradictory thoughts or beliefs.
According to Christian Science, therefore, the fact is that God's man, His compound idea, knows all that is good and real, because God, good, is his Mind. Sometimes, however, students of Christian Science struggle with a sense of having been deprived of much that is helpful and needful by having missed the opportunity of attending a higher school of learning. Many, having recognized the falsity of the suggestion that a lack of higher education can be an obstacle to their proper advancement and usefulness, have turned to the all-knowing Mind as the source of all true knowledge and have risen to greater heights of achievement by overcoming the very obstacle which might have limited their usefulness. They have demonstrated to a degree the scientific validity of the Scripture (Luke 15:31), "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." In other words, God's son, the real man, is ever at one with perfect Mind, and possesses intelligence, understanding, perception, and spiritual intuition. When this fact is understood and applied, the sense of limitation caused by a lack of human education is challenged, and the way for becoming truly educated, or being led out of the darkness of material beliefs into the light of spiritual understanding, is clear.
Any sense of shame or disappointment over a so-called lack of education would deny man's birthright to perpetual enlightenment. Most people recognize that they can augment their usefulness by making the most of the opportunities offered them to increase their store of information and to broaden their scope of interests. So a young person will appreciate the fact that a college career can be the means for mental and moral discipline and growth. A practical Christian Scientist does not overlook taking legitimate human footsteps under the guidance of divine wisdom. If he is preparing for a college education, he can abide in the assurance that by trusting in the unerring wisdom of divine Mind he will be guided every step of the way and gain a broader and deeper appreciation of all that is beautiful, enduring, and true. His appreciation of Mrs. Eddy's vision of the Christ, Truth, and of her revelation of what true knowledge is, will grow as he delves into "academics of the right sort."
After the Christian Scientist has begun his academic studies, he will not become alarmed by the discovery that professors and courses, laboratories and libraries, do not of themselves bestow on one a real education. Rather will he find that he must approach his academics with the fan of divine Science in hand in order to separate the tares from the wheat in the intellectual harvest. Aiding him, as it does, not to be taken in by specious, finite rationalization, Christian Science enables the student to perceive the real significance and value of "observation, invention, study, and original thought" in the realms of literature, economics, industry, political, social, and natural science. In this way he will not be led astray by academics of the wrong sort. When, as is sometimes the case, a most worth-while subject is seemingly presented in an unillumined and disjointed manner, he will not allow his insight and inspiration to become deadened.
After graduation he will not let material academics make him conceited by believing himself superior to his noncollege brothers by virtue of a degree. He will remember that college academics are only a stage in his intellectual, moral, and spiritual growth. As Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 235), "It is not so much academic education, as a moral and spiritual culture, which lifts one higher." The student will always bear in mind that his real need, his true desire, is to understand his Father-Mother God, the Principle of his real, spiritual existence, and to love his neighbor as himself. Then, as he grows in grace and catches glimpses of the underlying reality, the fundamental facts of being unfold to him more and more.
Systematic study of any worth-while subject, in or out of school, may help one develop qualities of thought and action which enable him more fully to grasp and demonstrate Christian Science. For example, the valuable faculty of discrimination may be quickened. This aids one in distinguishing more clearly the true from the false, the facts of being from the myriad inventions and beliefs of the carnal mind. The Christian Science student learns to discriminate between good and evil, between the effects of the divine Mind and the subjective illusions generated by mortal thinking.
Explaining that material conditions are but the objectification of mortal mind's own erroneous, negative thought, Christian Science teaches the student how to think more positively and to reason from perfect cause to perfect effect, and thus, as the true ideas of being are apprehended, to free himself from the fetters of limited material-mindedness. When confronted with school examinations or everyday problems, the student of Christian Science can with conviction and assurance refute the claim that his mind is something finite and fallible, an empty vessel to be filled. By knowing that God, the infinite, eternal Mind, is the only Mind, and consequently is his Mind, he overcomes the belief that his is an unsatisfactory, unrealiable mentality, which cannot retain knowledge.
Mrs. Eddy's intention that her students be conversant with international affairs and current events is evidenced in her founding of The Christian Science Monitor, our great international daily newspaper. It was the writer's experience that the more he learned from his schoolwork, the more he profited from his study of Mrs. Eddy's writings and the perusal of the Monitor. Her wide range of observation and information became more meaningful and gave him a fuller appreciation of the scope of her thought. The writer found that although Christian Science did not pave for him a royal road to learning, and although learning and comprehension did not always seem to come easily, through the application of God's law of progress and with the requisite effort there came a greater sense of satisfaction and dominion than he had ever known, a dominion and happiness susceptible of ever greater enhancement.
As the Christian Scientist grows spiritually he inevitably becomes enlightened, well-informed, and educated in a broader sense. To demonstrate in a practical manner God's all-inclusive law and government involves a spiritual understanding of the basic truths of being and an intuitive or cultivated discernment of the human need. He who is humbly willing to be guided by divine wisdom cannot help knowing all that he needs to know in any human situation. One recalls the way the Jews marveled when Jesus taught in the temple, and asked (John 7:15), "How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?" Thus the Master proved that spiritual vision brings an insight and perspicacity which far exceed human knowledge.
Paul admonished his beloved Timothy (II Tim. 2: 15, 16): "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness." Here is definite call for "academics of the right sort" and for scientific discrimination, as well as a denunciation of smug pedantry and intellectual vainglory.
The world needs well-informed and spiritually-minded people. They have an important part to play in the enlightenment and progress of mankind. Therefore, in the words of a hymn (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 41),
Come, labor on:
Who dares stand idle on the harvest plain?
While all around him waves the golden grain,
And to each servant does the Master say,
Go work today.
