CHAPTER 33.
EDUCATION FOR THE INNER LIFE.
After all, the body is only the tabernacle of the spirit. The spirit within, the essential part of man, must be developed as much as possible during the earth career.
**The Senses.** Knowledge is the material on which the mind works. In every progressive life fresh knowledge must be gathered as the days go by. The senses of man are the gateways through which that knowledge enters. The senses of man must be developed, therefore, as completely as is possible. Seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and feeling must all be developed fully and joyously for the pleasure and benefit of man. Without sharp senses, man may not have the highest earthly joy.
**The Reasoning Power.** It is not sufficient for the contentment of man that he gather knowledge, and add fact to fact. All new information must be compared with other information, so that conclusions may be drawn, and new knowledge brought into view. By this process of reasoning, on the basis of acquired knowledge, man may rise by sure steps to a high degree of understanding. Man must train himself, with all his might, to use this wonderful faculty of reason, so that he may intelligently read new knowledge from all he learns. A fact, of itself, is lifeless; only when it is compared with other facts, does it leap into life, and show forth its hidden meaning.
**The Feelings.** The sense of feeling is but a poor expression for the one great sense by which man may directly communicate with the region of the unseen. Through this sense, man stands on the border line between earth and the external universe. Those who have communion with the forces about them, because of their greater refinement of feeling, have comfort which is attainable in no other manner.
Moreover, our feelings with respect to our fellow men should be cultivated. We must learn to sympathize with them in their distresses, rejoice with them in their joys, and pity them in their sins. The education of the feelings is a great duty of man.
**The Spiritual Sense.** This sense is closely akin to the feelings. The virtues of man, such as hope, charity, and mercy, can reach high development only on the basis of the conviction that the unseen world may be known. When this conviction grows upon a man, and he reaches out for a fuller understanding of it, his spiritual sense develops, new worlds are opened to him and he conforms to the intelligent love which made the Great Plan possible.
**Symbolism.** Moreover, as man develops, he learns to be content to know eternal truths only in great symbols. That is, he learns to be satisfied to know that he does not fully know. This has already been dwelt upon and need not be further emphasized. The Sacrament, as an ordinance of the Church is one of the great symbols of the suffering and death of Jesus for the sake of mankind, that the Great Plan might be fulfilled. Bread is eaten and water is drunk as symbols of the body and blood of the Savior, given in the atoning sacrifice. Every other ordinance is similarly symbolic. Back of the symbols lies the whole Great Plan in all of its gradations. God demands that the sacrament be partaken of frequently, so that the atoning sacrifice of Jesus may be held before the people continually; so with the other great symbols of the Church. By them the realities of eternal life are held before us.
**Education.** The whole of life is education, or training for further work. No wonder, therefore, that, in the correct philosophy of life, schools and other devices for the training of man's powers are foremost. Education is and must be carried onward fully and abundantly, in the Church of Christ. The support of education is, indeed, a test of the truthfulness of the Church.