An encouraging sign of the times is the widespread recognition of the value of education for all, irrespective of race or sex, class or color. Ignorance and fear are inseparable companions, and both tend to foster superstitious, limiting, and disturbing beliefs, and thus hold men in bondage. Therefore, education of the right kind, leading as it does toward the dispelling of the darkness and dullness of ignorance, is in line with and indicative of God's law of progress and liberation.

It is interesting and significant that the Bible was and is the pioneer in the campaign against illiteracy. As a result of the able, fearless, and unselfish labors of such reformers as Wycliffe, Tyndale, and Luther, the monopolistic grip of the clergy on the Scriptures was broken, and the charter of mankind's salvation was made available in modern language to the laity. The wide circulation of the Bible is one of the glories of modern times.

Although Jesus of Nazareth had not the advantage of what might be regarded as a scholar's training, this did not hinder him from fulfilling his great mission, for through spiritual understanding he demonstrated that man is the expression of the all-knowing divine Mind. Not only did he heal the sick and present many other proofs of God's love for man in support of his divine commission, but he taught from the Scriptures and spoke with such clarity, logic, and intelligence that his adversaries were confuted. It is recorded that "the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me."

A careful consideration of these and similar statements of the great Master, with the aid of the spiritual illumination furnished by Christian Science, leads to the conclusion that Christ Jesus knew that God, the Father or creator of all that is real and true, is the one infinite divine Mind, and that man, the image of Mind, reflects or expresses intelligence, wisdom, joy, alertness, accuracy, discernment, and all other desirable and needed qualities. This spiritual understanding enabled Jesus to demonstrate and express the evidences of a human education which was adequate for his need, and which was sufficiently high to command the respect even of his opponents. Furthermore, the healing and redemptive works wrought by the Master, the completeness of the dematerializing and spiritualizing of his consciousness, and the enduring and ever-widening influence of his life and teachings show that spiritual understanding constitutes the higher, yes, the highest education.

Although Mrs. Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" and her other writings stresses these facts, pointing consistently and insistently to Spirit as the All-in-all of reality, she plainly indicates her recognition of the need and value of human education. In fact, she states on page 195 of Science and Health that "academics of the right sort are requisite." And she adds, "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."

In this connection it is significant that in demonstrating the omniscience of God, divine Mind, Jesus measured up to the then prevailing standard of learning, so that he was known as a man of letters. This hints a most important point concerning the procurement and use of education, that is, the motive which prompts its acquisition. It is certain that Jesus' motive in everything he did was lofty, and entirely free from taint of self-glorification, pride, wrong or base ambition, and intellectual vanity. His knowledge of letters was employed solely as a helpful adjunct and aid in fulfilling his great Messianic mission. When the suggestion came to him that his understanding of the allness and omnipotence of divine Mind might be employed to bring him material supply and human popularity and prestige, the Master detected the deceitfulness of the argument, stripped off its mask, and banished it.

Therefore, those who literally accept Christ Jesus as the Way-shower are led to the conclusion that naught should be classed or accepted as higher education which does not tend to guide human thought upward, and free it from enslaving and debasing material beliefs. Writing in Science and Health (p. 235) of the functions of teaching and teachers, our Leader says: "Nurseries of character should be strongly garrisoned with virtue. School-examinations are one-sided; it is not so much academic education, as a moral and spiritual culture, which lifts one higher. The pure and uplifting thoughts of the teacher, constantly imparted to pupils, will reach higher than the heavens of astronomy; while the debased and unscrupulous mind, though adorned with gems of scholarly attainment, will degrade the characters it should inform and elevate."

The "moral and spiritual culture, which lifts one higher" is no outward and passing polish or mere veneer, for it is indicative of the Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus," and which, according to Christian Science, is available to all. This culture need not be forfeited, even though a student in school or college finds it necessary to include in his curriculum a subject which is not in harmony with the spiritual teachings that to him have been proved practical and veritable by means of healing. The student will maintain his spiritual vision undimmed if he will remember and obey the Master's injunction, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness." The alert student will recognize that any subject which tends to enthrone evil and materialistic hypotheses is only a temporal falsity; then he can give sufficient attention to any required subject by regarding it as he would consider and study Greek mythology.

Incidentally, it may be mentioned that not all students in school and college have complete or adequate library facilities easily and continually available, but students of the Science of Mind have their adequate, satisfying, and complete library of textbooks in the Bible, Science and Health, and Mrs. Eddy's other writings. The purpose of all true educational endeavors is the displacing of ignorance and its limitations with intelligence and its liberating light. This being true, it follows that the study which brings human thought in line with divine Mind, the source of intelligence and true wisdom, constitutes genuine higher education, the education which is thoroughly satisfying and consistently beneficent. Those who strive for this higher education, who seek first the kingdom or government of God, have other things added to them, as Jesus promised, for the applied understanding of divine law improves their work, whether it be in the classroom or the courtroom, in business or in the home. Surely, then, we should heed this proverb of Solomon: "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding."

Copyright, 1935, by The Christian Science Publishing Society, One, Norway Street, Boston, Massachusetts. Entered at Boston post office as second-class matter. Acceptance for mailing at a special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 11, 1918.