Article November 29, 1930 Issue

Progress

ARTHUR CROOKENDEN

Expressions employed in foot racing are used by the Apostle Paul to illustrate his teaching. An example of this is his saying, "Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." We can see in Paul's illustration the human runner striving to win an earthly prize, all his thought and energy concentrated on one aim. He is oblivious to all else but his need for pressing toward the mark. The ropes and rails, the very ground itself, are to him nonessential. The roar of the onlookers he heeds not. The doubts which beset him before the race began are gone. He has forgotten all but the one needful thing—to reach the goal.

In our race toward harmony, our progress from mortally-governed mentality to spiritual living and blessedness, we can use means similar to those of the human runner. The first step is to discard the past, our previous reliance on matter, our belief in its substantiality. We must turn our faces, bright with hope, to the truth, which tells us that all substance, all reality, is in and of God. In the effort to realize this, with the accompanying fact that man is God's image and likeness, all doubts, fears, and anxieties must drop from us. This effort is prayer. Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 11), "Prayer, coupled with a fervent habitual desire to know and do the will of God, will bring us into all Truth." The proof of our progress is the success we achieve in gaining the true sense of spiritual selfhood.

A runner must train himself if he would hope for success. Although to the spectator the race appears to be apart from the long training period, it is no more than its culmination. The race essentially begins when the training begins. From the start of his training the runner's mental eyes are fixed on the finish. Thus, for the Christian as well as for the athlete, the training and the race can be considered as one. The effort is continuous. The guiding thought is single-mindedness. Whether progress is considered in relation to an individual or to a group of individuals, as in a church, this single-mindedness is essential. "Be ye all of one mind," said Peter. And the Mind which we are to have is, as Paul said, and as Christian Science tells us, the Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus." To gain this Mind increasingly requires sustained effort. "Obedience crowns persistent effort with everlasting victory," says Mrs. Eddy in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 118). Denial of the claims of matter in all its forms, single-mindedness, sustained effort, must animate the individual or the church desiring to progress. Denial of the claims of matter is vital. This denial entails the healing of the sick and the sinning.

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