Editorial August 2, 1913 Issue

GROWTH AN AWAKENING

John B. Willis

That the normal Christian life means steady growth, would appeal to most people as logical if not axiomatic; and if they were asked the meaning of growth, practically all would approve the saying that "the Christian man should grow as grows the tree."

In the emphasis this prevailing sense of the nature of spiritual advance places upon the value of strength, beauty, and continuous increase, it is legitimate and commendable, but in so far as it is in subjection to the laws and limitations of material evolution, it is likely to become a disabling fallacy. In all her writings Mrs. Eddy is most considerate for human conditions and the practical probabilities of human nature. At the same time she recognized and demonstrated the possibility of that immediate spiritual awakening which fulfils the higher and more inspiring concept of growth presented in Christian Science.

In the thought of the many all growth is gradual, and a long-time element has thus come to be regarded as necessary to every spiritual gain. The inevitable outcome of this belief is registered in that snail-pace advance in knowledge and efficiency which characterizes the average Christian experience. Though quite unconscious of any distinct gain in spiritual perception of capacity, even during years of church attendance and religious conformity, the "Christian evolutionist" who speaks of geological fauna as "our ancestors" is not troubled. He notes the vast time consumption of material history, that the oak makes but an inappreciable increase year by year, and he unconsciously becomes adjusted to the thought that at the best the rule of the spiritual is to be a future rather than a present realization!

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