SOME years ago a young man, eager to study journalism, entered a large university. However, he discovered that he was required to take a number of subjects which appeared to be of little value to him. He became discouraged, and for over two years lost interest in his studies and barely passed the examinations.

At that point he became actively interested in Christian Science, and learned to prepare his thought for each day by studying the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly. His college work began to take on new value and fresh interest. As he learned the great truth of spiritual being, that God is Mind, the one infinite divine intelligence, expressing in man pure spiritual ideas, his thought took on insporation and activity. The fetters of belief in materialmindedness, with the related errors of limited ability, began to fall away, and spiritual reality, "a new heaven and a new earth," spoken of in Revelation, unfolded to his thought. With this enlarged spiritual understanding he was able to grasp the meaning of things more spontaneously and intuitively, and in his written reports and essays there appeared an intelligent freshness of viewpoint which his professors recognized and encouraged. As a result of this spiritualization of thought, he became successful in his studies and obtained much better grades.

At the end of his course of study a comprehensive examination based upon the whole four years' work was required. This was considered a difficult test. The young man, armed with his understanding of God as infinite intelligence and the knowledge that divine wisdom is ever practical and present, faced the three-hour examination with confidence and freedom of thought. The result was an excellent grade in the examination. Later, one of the professors remarked that what had been achieved was most unusual.

Christian Science teaches us that true education is the unfolding of spiritual truth. The divine Mind is the source of every true idea and thought. On page 259 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy has written: "God, Spirit, works spiritually, not materially. Brain or matter never formed a human concept." This basic understanding that the divine Mind is the only intelligence, that man is the reflection of perfect Mind, and that mortal mind, or the so-called human will, is the counterfeit of real intelligence, frees the individual from belief in mental and moral deficiency and insufficiency, and opens the way for a higher and broader education.

Knowledge of man's unlimited resources and immeasurable spiritual faculties brings deeper insight, broader vision, more accurate reasoning; makes for better scholarship and the practical application of useful ideas to human needs. But mere academic achievement is not the measure of true education. Christ Jesus was the greatest teacher of all time. And yet it was asked of him, as recorded in the seventh chapter of John, "How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?" His perfect understanding of the truth of being gave him dominion over all seeming material forces, powers, and conditions.

Mary Baker Eddy, through her understanding of God, of Life, Truth, and Love, gave to humanity her exposition of her wonderful discovery, thus becoming the greatest spiritual teacher since Christ Jesus. Her statements of truth, founded upon the Bible, form the basis of true learning and act as a guide to the student of any useful subject. On page 235 of Science and Health she writes: "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." And on page 252 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," Mrs. Eddy writes as follows: "The entire purpose of true education is to make one not only know the truth but live it—to make one enjoy doing right, make one not work in the sunshine and run away in the storm, but work midst clouds of wrong, injustice, envy, hate; and wait on God, the strong deliverer, who will reward righteousness and punish iniquity."

Progress in the understanding of health as holiness quickens human consciousness and frees it from the confusion and uncertainties of mortal mind. Christian Science teaches us how to overcome the belief of limited ability by knowing that God is the only Mind, that intelligence is infinite, and is imparted to all by divine Love.

There is no doubt that conditions in the world today are adverse to aggressive, evangelical Christianity, and there is no use shutting our eyes to it. But, somehow or other, in its darkest days Christianity has always achieved its greatest results. We have been too acquiescent. We do not assert ourselves as we should. We must make no apologies for our faith. We must assert it and move forward to conquest with God. There is absolutely no other way to save the world.

BISHOP ERNEST G. RICHARDSON