Article January 11, 1969 Issue

To Be a Student

ALINE N. THOMPSON

Followers of Christ Jesus were known as disciples, a word meaning student, and from the time Mrs. Eddy first taught a single student Christian Science, Christian Scientists have been known as students.

The term "student," as used in Christian Science, is accurate. By definition the word means one who studies, and the student of Christian Science fulfills this definition through consistent, daily, and prayerful study of his infinite subject.

Whether he sets aside hours or moments for careful study of his textbooks, the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mrs. Eddy, he is, if sincere, one of those "honest seekers for Truth," to whom Mrs. Eddy commits the pages of Science and Health. She says in the Preface to that book, "In the spirit of Christ's charity,—as one who 'hopeth all things, endureth all things,' and is joyful to bear consolation to the sorrowing and healing to the sick,—she commits these pages to honest seekers for Truth."^{Science and Health, p. xii;} Later in the same book, in answer to the question "How can I progress most rapidly in the understanding of Christian Science?" she says, in part, "Study thoroughly the letter and imbibe the spirit."^{p. 405;} It is the understanding of God and of himself as His image and likeness that the student seeks, for he has discerned that what he spiritually understands of the nature of God's creation determines every phase of his human experience.