Article June 20, 1942 Issue

"The education of the future"

DON C. GIFFORD

The intellectual life of the young Christian Scientist is a continual and joyous opportunity to prove the one real education. It is the striving to realize what Mrs. Eddy has set forth in "Miscellaneous Writings" (pp. 60, 61): "Every material belief hints the existence of spiritual reality; and if mortals are instructed in spiritual things, it will be seen that material belief, in all its manifestations, reversed, will be found the type and representative of verities priceless, eternal, and just at hand." She adds, "The education of the future will be instruction, in spiritual Science, against the material symbolic counterfeit sciences."

The student of Christian Science at a college or university thus finds himself at work realizing "the education of the future." In this work he is dedicated to the purpose of "Church," as Mrs. Eddy has defined it in part (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 583): "The Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick." How natural it is, then, that Mrs. Eddy should have made provision in the Manual of The Mother Church for Christian Science organizations at colleges and universities! These organizations exist primarily to help both students of Christian Science and the universities they attend to open the door to "the education of the future."

The Christian Scientist at a university is faced with the problem of instructing himself "in spiritual Science, against the material symbolic counterfeit sciences." He has not only the normal human task of reading and learning before him; he has also the task of turning his gaze from the material counterfeit to the spiritual essence or idea. Indeed, the normal human steps in education are secondary; the primary or first consideration is the unfoldment of spiritual understanding. It is axiomatic in Christian Science that this understanding will increase the intellectual capacities and will adapt and control the elaborate weight of knowledge through spiritual intuition.

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