Editorial June 6, 1936 Issue

Exaltation, not Exultation

George Shaw Cook

Even as the husbandman rejoices in the time of harvest, so the workers in the Field of Christian Science activity rejoice at Annual Meeting time in the evidences of fruitful endeavor. But this should be a time of exaltation, rather than of exultation.

We are grateful that each year's meeting marks the continuous progress of our movement. Nevertheless, our feeling at these times is not so much one of exultation over victories won and advances made, as it is of exaltation of divine Principle, some understanding and demonstration of which has made these victories and advances possible. At such times of rejoicing, we may well repeat the words of Mary the mother of Jesus, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour."

The progress of our movement is marked by substantial increase in membership as well as by growth in spiritual understanding and by increased ability to demonstrate the healing power of the Christ, Truth. We are gratified by reports of new churches formed, older churches showing encouraging signs of harmony and usefulness, larger numbers attending our lectures, greater helpfulness expressed by our Reading Rooms, wider circulation and distribution of our literature, and more interest in our other educational means. These and other indications of growth are the outward manifestations of that "inward and spiritual grace" that all true Christian Scientists are earnestly striving to possess in ever-increasing degree. On page 233 of "Science and Health withKey to the Scriptures" our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, says: "Every day makes its demands upon us for higher proofs rather than professions of Christian power. These proofs consist solely in the destruction of sin, sickness, and death by the power of Spirit, as Jesus destroyed them. This is an element of progress, and progress is the law of God, whose law demands of us only what we can certainly fulfill."

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