Article September 16, 1944 Issue

"Earth's preparatory school"

ALICE VANDER HIDEN DAMON

The Christian pilgrim in his journey from sense to Soul may come to the place where he sees the unreality of mortal existence before the radiance of spiritual life dawns fully upon his consciousness. Existence may then seem to him almost like a dream shadow and a sense of futility about his human affairs may weigh him down. "Why," he asks, "do we strive so hard to improve human conditions, since mortal existence is only a dream?"

To find the answer to this question, he need only turn more unreservedly to our Leader's writings. Mary Baker Eddy was a practical Christian, and expected us to prove Christian Science right where it finds us. She tells us in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 486), "Earth's preparatory school must be improved to the utmost." As attending school should dispel ignorance, so our earthly experience, if rightly utilized, can aid in awakening us from the mortal dream and in opening the way to eternal life.

The writer became very much interested at one time in watching the construction of a beautiful home. She could envisage its completed beauty and symmetry, even though the scaffolding concealed much of it. She saw that though the scaffolding was no part of the beautiful house and would be removed when the building was completed, yet it had been carefully erected and was serving a necessary though temporary purpose. This brought home the lesson that we cannot afford to neglect the proper structure of our human existence if we are to build for eternity.

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