Article January 15, 1938 Issue

Progress, the Law of Love

MARY F. KINGSTON

In true progress there is no stagnation, no inertia. Progress is advancement, development, a getting somewhere. A sparkling reservoir may illustrate progress. It is clean, healthful, and useful. It accepts abundantly, and it gives again freely. A stagnant pool, on the contrary, has no outlet, no overflow. It receives, but having no outlet it is useless and unwholesome.

How easy it is to trace an analogy! The active, useful Christian Scientist, pure in heart and eager to be helpful, accepts the abundant goodness of God joyously. His thought is open, and he acknowledges the source of all good to be the loving heavenly Father. He receives to give again. He recognizes no obstacle to good, no obstruction to the continuous flow of that supply which meets every need. And he realizes that he cannot hold good within his grasp to hoard it or take it out of circulation. His clear thinking is like a reservoir, receiving good only that it may be shared.

Materiality, presenting life as a material experience only, is like the stagnant pool. The materially-minded person is more concerned with getting than with giving. In his work such a one is far more interested in what he will get out of it than in what he can put into it. So he becomes competitive, afraid that he will fail to receive all that is due him. This gives greed an opportunity to rule his thought, and takes the joy out of his association with his fellows. Like the stagnant pool, which has no progressive activity, such wrong thinking has no spiritual development, no outlet. In his attempt to hold on to that which should be shared, the wrong thinker becomes self-centered, self-seeking—an aggressive member of society, indifferent to the rights of others.

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