Editorial April 14, 1951 Issue

THE COLLEGE STUDENT

Robert Ellis Key

When a student of Christian Science enters school or college, he sometimes finds himself confronted with a number of problems new to him. He discovers, however, that his early training in the Christian Science Sunday School fortifies him to meet these problems without fear. He has learned to know God, to go to God, and to trust God in all things. The seeds of Truth planted by his parents and in the Christian Science Sunday School may not spring up unhampered by the tares of mortal mind. But the Scientist has learned to distinguish between the tares and the wheat, the false and the true, and he is not afraid of evil, nor is he deceived by it, for he knows it to be unreal, since God, good, is the only reality.

Human life may be likened to a field which must be cultivated by its owner. A farmer would not leave his fields untended. He is aware of the value of his crops. Many things are given him to make his farm produce abundantly: the warm sun, the refreshing rain, the seed, the soil, and the cycle of the seasons. Each of these contributes a gift. In recognition of these gifts the Christian Scientist gives glory to God. St. Paul writes (I Cor. 3:7), "Neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." Every day is a harvest in which we can root out the tares and burn them, gathering the good grain which has grown to the full yield.

The student of Christian Science who enters school or college has a new field of experience in which to work. In this field he finds opportunities accompanied by responsibilities. New views of home and friendship open out to him. He constantly finds it necessary to exercise good judgment in his selection of friends. They are likely to exercise an influence on his future career; therefore he selects them with discrimination. Careful choice must be made not only of friends, but of books and entertainments also. Mary Baker Eddy says (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 195), "It is the tangled barbarisms of learning which we deplore,—the mere dogma, the speculative theory, the nauseous fiction."

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