MANY people would say that the primary function of a university education is to develop the student's intellectual powers: to equip him with the ability to learn for himself, and to appraise intelligently whatever comes to his notice. Certainly this is more valuable and permanent than training for some profession, although that also has its proper place in a university.
Yet the description sometimes given of a university as "the nursery of intellect" is not, to a Christian Scientist, strictly accurate. A better description might be "an environment where one's native intelligence can be developed, and applied particularly to learning, to teaching, or to research." What appears humanly as intellect, at least in its more desirable aspects, may be some manifestation of divine intelligence. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, often speaks highly of intellect. Yet human intellect seems to be personal; and in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" she writes (p. 312), "A personal sense of God and of man's capabilities necessarily limits faith and hinders spiritual understanding."
Students of Christian Science have all learned something of the unlimited perfection and availability of divine Mind. Its availability to the university student is a priceless advantage in his academic studies, if he claims it as his own. It can help him to a far greater measure of satisfaction and achievement than he could hope to attain by relying merely on his own unaided efforts.
