Article October 9, 1948 Issue

THE SCHOOLMASTER

GLADYS D. PFANNENMILLER

Everyone at some time has had acquaintance with a schoolmaster, Today he may be called by some other name— teacher, master, instructor, or principal; but his office is the same—to instruct, guide, discipline, and help one find his place in the world.

In his epistle to the Galatians (3:23–25) Paul uses the word "schoolmaster" in a metaphorical sense: "Before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." Mary Baker Eddy expands and illumines this passage when she writes on page 11 of "Rudimental Divine Science": "Sickness is the schoolmaster, leading you to Christ; first to faith in Christ; next to belief in God as omnipotent; and finally to the understanding of God and man in Christian Science, whereby you learn that God is good, and in Science man is His likeness, the forever reflection of goodness. Therefore good is one and All."

The law referred to by Paul is the so-called law of mortal mind, which would keep us in subjection to sickness, sin, and death by having us believe that man is both material and spiritual, that he is born a mortal but later becomes immortal, and that he comes under the government of both good and evil forces. This so-called law loses its seeming power as faith in Christ dawns in human consciousness. Then Christ, Truth, becomes our master and leads us to the understanding that good alone is all.

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