A GREAT deal of thought and discussion is being centered today upon academic education. But the public generally still remains unaware of the great need for individual spiritual advancement. More than eighty years ago, however, Mary Baker Eddy discovered that all true knowledge is spiritual and scientific, since it originates in and emanates from God, Spirit, the all-knowing Mind. Subsequently she revealed in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," that infallible proofs of the practicality of spiritual understanding abound in the Bible in the words and works of the prophets, the apostles, and Christ Jesus.
The Master knew man and the universe to be spiritual. He knew the laws governing them to be spiritual laws, resident in God and therefore ever present, ever operative, all-powerful. This spiritual understanding, or true scientific knowledge of God and of man's relationship to Him, enabled Jesus to do his wonderful works and also to teach others how to follow his example. Through Christian Science these teachings and their practical proof are being perpetuated on earth today.
On page 468 of the Christian Science textbook our Leader presents in six sentences, called "the scientific statement of being," what might be termed a brief summary of the scientific education which may be acquired through the study of Christian Science. It reads as follows: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual."
