THE ultimate purpose of spiritual education is to lift mankind progressively out of the deceptive dream of materiality and sin into the joy-inspiring, spiritual sense of immortal being. To some, immortality may appear to be of such a hazy, indeterminate nature as to preclude its acceptance in thought as a present possibility.
Christian Science, the Science of true existence, challenges this conclusion and offers to the world spiritual education that lends wings to noble aspirations. It inculcates a firm faith and calm assurance that God, the infinite All-in-all, is the Supreme Being. Its teachings enable one to perceive man as the present perfect reflection of this one and only Being. Every glimpse of God and man in this oneness of immortal being loosens the fetters of ignorance and sin, dispels the darkness of materiality and death, and expands one's spiritual capacity to reflect true wisdom. Spiritual blessings comprise the ultimate demonstration of Christian Science, and they greatly transcend and outshine the benefits of physical healing which its practice inevitably adds to one's human experience.
Some mortals believe that a final disintegration of material existence will come through a terrible cataclysm. The following message of hope from the pen of our revered Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, in her "Miscellaneous Writings" assures us that there are no valid grounds for such belief (p. 356): "The pent-up elements of mortal mind need no terrible detonation to free them. Envy, rivalry, hate need no temporary indulgence that they be destroyed through suffering; they should be stifled from lack of air and freedom."
The often-accepted methods of studying and teaching from the purely scholastic viewpoint, delving into material research and tending to ignore or scorn the inspirational and spiritual, contribute to the causes that lead to warfare. Educational trends should be directed along the course that runs heavenward in a search for God. the primal cause. "For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding" (Prov. 2:6).
It is a truism that there is something to be learned from every human experience. The greatest lesson of the recent war is humanity's dire need for spiritual education. And the signs of the times indicate a growing desire for spiritual enlightenment.
Christian Science spiritually educates humanity, guiding thought unerringly and undeviatingly along the path which leads to God, divine Principle. Through its study, the student learns how to utilize and demonstrate, in healing the sick and reforming the sinner, the truth revealed to prophet and patriarch. Thus he finds that basic-spiritual facts are fundamental to his education, and as he properly evaluates them he gives them precedence over the study of academic subjects.
Spiritual education cannot be considered apart from inspiration, because true inspiration is a divine influence, having its origin in God. Christ Jesus never failed to point out to his followers that God was the controlling and inspiring source of his good works. His unqualified acknowledgment that his origin and intuitive spiritual sense were of his Father gave him unprecedented power and success in teaching the truth and in healing all manner of ills.
The pre-eminence of spiritually inspired education over scholastic intellectualism was vividly evidenced on an occasion when Jesus preached in the temple in Judea. According to the seventh chapter of John, "The Jews marvelled, saying. How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?"
Jesus' reply, "My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me," set forth a great fact and revealed God as the Principle of all true knowledge, wisdom, and inspiration. Mrs. Eddy discovered and demonstrated this Principle and the rules underlying the Master's great works Through her consecrated study of the Scriptures, through self-abnegation and purity, she gained the spiritual education which brought forth this final revelation of Truth and enabled her to give it to the world.
In unmistakable symbols the beloved disciple John in the twelfth chapter of Revelation records the manner of Truth's appearing. There one finds definite confirmation of the divine origin of Mrs. Eddy's mission and discovery.
Mrs. Eddy herself disavowed any sense of personal triumph or accomplishment. She well knew the source of her inspiration to be God, divine Mind. Her writings reveal that inspiration cannot be gained through any ordinary human means and methods. On page 506 of her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she writes, "Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear."
A Christian Science student for many years was obsessed with the feeling that he lacked education. This obsession hindered his progress and stood in the way of his advancement in the business world. Although assured that his actual experience qualified him for a higher position, he refrained from making application each time an opportunity appeared. The fear that his record of training was inadequate because it included neither a college degree nor academic honors, resulted in frustration and delusion, which as time went on assumed gigantic proportions.
This blinded him to the fact that true education is the understanding of Science, the truth about God, man, and the universe. Gradually it began to dawn upon him that the fundamentals of true education are attained through spiritual inspiration and study of the Word of God. He awakened to that which belongs to man as God's reflection, and there came to his waiting thought a fuller appreciation of the value of spiritual education.
He realized how richly blessed he had been for years through the understanding of God and man which was daily growing more priceless as he studied the Bible and our Leader's writings. Opportunities then came for him to broaden his human education to meet new occasions, the false barrier of inadequate learning began to lift, and fear melted away.
The realization that a knowledge of spiritual reality is true education enabled him to take a test with a group of college graduates in which he received the highest rating. This was the beginning of a new experience of progress in fruitful achievement, gainful employment, and joyous expression of man's true qualities.
The humble Nazarene, inspired by prayerful contemplation of God and communion with Him, proved indubitably the superiority of spiritual education over the material learning which the proud doctors in Judea displayed. Likewise did Mrs. Eddy, who was a prodigious student, although not university trained, demonstrate spiritual power and wisdom. God was her Teacher. Nevertheless, as the Leader of the great Christian Science movement, she points out to her followers the necessity of right academics. She says (ibid., p. 195): "Whatever furnishes the semblance of an idea governed by its Principle, furnishes food for thought. Through astronomy, natural history, chemistry, music, mathematics, thought passes naturally from effect to cause. 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." Again she says (ibid.), "It is the tangled barbarisms of learning which we deplore,— the mere dogma, the speculative theory, the nauseous fiction." Those who have named the name of Christ in divine Science, but who may perhaps be struggling with the belief of limited education in matters mundane, can gain inspiration and true knowledge by turning to God. In the degree of their faithful communion with divine Mind and their understanding and application of Christian Science they will prove in their own experience that man's capacity is unlimited because divine Mind, the Life of man, is infinite.
