Article July 25, 1908 Issue

SCIENTIFIC PROGRESSION

SEYMOUR KNIGHT.

WE are all familiar with the thought that a correct application of the rules of Christian Science is as accurate in result as a correct application of the rules of the science of mathematics. Perhaps sometimes we are tempted to be discouraged in our endeavor to solve a problem which has presented itself in our experience, and which seems very difficult and slow in its working out. There is no real reason for this feeling any more than there is reason to be discouraged in solving a puzzling mathematical problem, simply because it requires careful study and patient and persistent application of a given rule. In both cases, a correct application of the rule will bring in the end the correct result, no matter how long we are in the process. We need not be afraid of any form of evil that may appear to discourage us, for evil is, now and forever, powerless to prevent the success of Christian Science work.

The accompanying illustrations have been helpful to me in an endeavor to minimize the sense of error and its seeming power to keep us from bringing out correct results. Those who have studied advanced arithmetic are familiar with what is termed arithmetical progression, a series of numbers, as 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, etc., which increases (or decreases) by the addition (or subtraction) of the same number each time; for instance, in this particular series 2 is added to each number to produce the number following it. In our work in Christian Science we are all the while making progress,—enlarging our sense of God day by day, even as the series of numbers increases by a constant law, and we have learned that as we progress in our understanding of this truth we are able to meet harder problems.

The Christian Science text-book tells us (p. 113) that "the divine metaphysics of Christian Science, like the method in mathematics, proves the rule by inversion;" i.e., error is an inverted sense of good. As we learn more and more about Christian Science, we find that the power which evil seemingly has over us becomes less and less by its own method of inversion. Suppose now, to illustrate this, we take a decreasing series of numbers, that is, reverse the series which served to represent our enlarging sense of God, and we have 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 0. We see right away that this series is one which constantly decreases in power, and it illustrates the way error may be constantly lessened until it is overcome—has been "scientifically reduced to its native nothingness" (Science and Health, p. 575).

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