Article April 13, 1912 Issue

PROGRESS

WILLIAM H. ECTON.

The Standard Dictionary defines the verb progress as "to go on toward perfection; make improvement; rise; gain; grow; advance; improve." Each and every word given denotes action, and not merely action but specifically the kind of action which points to overcoming, rising, surmounting imperfection, thus the approaching of perfection.

The writer has recently been wondrously helped by taking a retrospective survey of his own progress, and of the many things that are required of each individual before he can take a permanent step up higher, which is only possible by a fuller conscious recognition of the allness of divine Love and its imperative demands. That Truth is constantly declaring to the carnal mind, "Thou shalt surely die," is a fact which comes to all those who are earnestly striving for the Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus;" and as they break away from their old moorings, which are finite, and gain a small realization that, as our Leader puts it, "the suppositional warfare between truth and error is only the mental conflict between the evidence of the spiritual senses and the testimony of the material senses" (Science and Health, p. 288), the meaning and importance of obedience to the apostle's exhortation to "pray without ceasing" is realized.

When willingness and desire is manifested to obey, in spirit as well as in the letter, the teachings of Christ Jesus, there await each loyal student many seeming defeats as well as victories. To fall victim to a passion of anger or hate is of course humiliating, to say the least, but it may be turned from and forgotten. Later, however, when such tempests assail the student he may try and even seem to succeed in forgetting the incident, but he does not go far before he realizes that he is chained to something which causes him to go around a circle instead of forward, and through much prayer and seeking he learns that the smallest sin is too big for the straight and narrow way of Truth, and that in order to advance he must see that evil is not person, place, or thing, but a condition of mortal consciousness which must be dispelled by the light of Truth, the truth about God and man; and thus the lesson of impersonalizing error is learned.

Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.

Send a comment to the editors
NEXT IN THIS ISSUE
Poem
SUNBEAMS
April 13, 1912
Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit