Article August 23, 1919 Issue

True Education

GEORGIA M. MC CLURE

Isaiah has said and Paul has reiterated that "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." Then if we cannot know God through the senses, nor through the emotions, how are we to know Him? We have only to look at Paul's first letter to the Corinthians to find the answer. Here it is: "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Surely no Bible students know better than Christian Scientists the necessity of understanding the Bible truths through spiritual discernment. Thanks to Mrs. Eddy's clear, practical teachings, this spiritual discernment is a matter of daily demonstration to many thousands.

Sometimes students of this Science wonder why error seems to have any reality and why evil seems to scream with pretended power. The plaint comes: "Why should I have this false claim to fight? I try to do my best every day." Then comes the necessity for careful self-analysis, a close examination of mental guests, and a persistent clearing out of all false sense of self apart from Principle. Through this mental house cleaning and the good results which follow, we learn to welcome each experience, not as a trial or difficulty, but as an added opportunity to increase our spiritual education. Then it becomes evident that the question one should ask himself must not be, "How did you sleep last night?" or "How do you feel to-day?" but rather, "What do you know of God to-day and of yourself as His spiritual idea, and has your education along spiritual lines increased any since yesterday?"

The writer well remembers her mental turmoil when early in her study of Christian Science she read this sentence in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 284): "The intercommunication is always from God to His idea, man." God already knows all; hence education is only necessary on our part, that we may have an ever increasing realization of God and of ourselves as His ideas.

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