Mary Baker Eddy's deep respect for enlightened learning is noted in her statement in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 195): "Academics of the right sort are requisite. Observation, invention, study, and original thought are expansive and should promote the growth of mortal mind out of itself, out of all that is mortal."

Mrs. Eddy knew and loved the cultural world in which she lived. The current series in the Sentinel, entitled "Mrs. Eddy Mentioned Them," draws our attention to the wide range of her reading. Her grasp on many subjects was the admiration of her teachers and is the wonder of many thoughtful scholars today.

At no point in her writings does Mrs. Eddy give the impression that a proper human education is to be neglected. What our Leader evidently longed for was a purification of educational systems so that Christliness would be considered superior to the merely intellectual achievement, morals to brilliance, and the knowledge of Truth, in the healing of human ills, to medical limitations.

In "No and Yes," Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 33), "If the Bible and my work Science and Health had their rightful place in schools of learning, they would revolutionize the world by advancing the kingdom of Christ." A right perspective is needed in education as in every kind of endeavor.

The young Scientist who is planning his education should keep in mind that he is first of all a Christian Scientist. He knows that some of the subjects in courses he may be required to take will contradict what he has learned of the oneness of Mind, God, and the unreality of matter. But he may find it useful in spreading the truth of being to appraise the fallacies of materialism properly in order to correct them intelligently. He can never be made to agree with what he knows to be outdated by the discovery of Christian Science; but he can use his knowledge of true Science to evaluate what he is being taught and to make a genuine contribution to the world.

The college student should not assume that the useful material sciences should be discarded at this moment simply because the one divine Science has come to the world. At the present time many such sciences server good human uses, and even though those uses are temporary, they have their proper place in promoting the human mind out of all that is mortal. They serve a purpose which is not contrary to divine Science but rather expresses the expanding effect upon human thought of the Science which has come to the world as the absolute truth of all things.

One hears at times of college students who become confused by the discrepancy between the revealed fact that matter is nothing and the study of matter for purposes of observation and invention. However, a student's understanding of divine Mind as his only Mind—the source of his right thinking—and his knowledge of man as the reflection of Mind should release intelligence and wisdom to his use in such a way that his observation and inventive thinking are greatly enriched.

Mrs. Eddy was once asked by a newspaper reporter what she thought of modern material inventions. She replied (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 345): "Oh, we cannot oppose them. They all tend to newer, finer, more etherealized ways of living. They seek the finer essences. They light the way to the Church of Christ. We use them, we make them our figures of speech. They are preparing the way for us."

Christ Jesus once deplored the false sense of knowledge entertained by the Pharisees and Sadducees, who were blind to the truth he came to give the world. He said (Matt. 16:3), "Can ye not discern the signs of the times?" At another time he counseled his disciples (Matt. 5:20), "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."

The greatest need of mankind in this era is to understand the signs of the times: the coming of divine Science to the world and the effect of this Science upon human thinking as the limits imposed by matter are broken down. In the sciences and in academic subjects, the right sort, not the wrong sort, of knowledge is needed. The Christian Scientist can take into the schools of learning the truths that leaven the human mind and prove the power of Truth to increase his ability to acquire and retain knowledge, to grasp values, and to distinguish between what is worthwhile learning and what is not worthwhile. He can help to advance the understanding of matter's unreality and in this way aid mankind in freeing itself from bondage to matter.

These words of the author of Proverbs sum up the question of the right sort of academic studies (9:9,10): "Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding."

Helen Wood Bauman