Article June 24, 1950 Issue

THE WAY OF PROGRESS

RICHARD HOLMES STRAIN, JR.

In answer to the question, "How can I progress most rapidly in the understanding of Christian Science?" our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, writes (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 495): "Study thoroughly the letter and imbibe the spirit. Adhere to the divine Principle of Christian Science and follow the behests of God, abiding steadfastly in wisdom, Truth, and Love." Many students of Christian Science find it easy and enjoyable to study the letter and even memorize some of its truths, but unless they have imbibed the spirit, they soon discover that they lack the understanding to demonstrate the healing power of Christian Science.

How does one imbibe the spirit? It is a matter of realizing the presence of God as ever with us, and when an individual allows nothing but divine Truth and Love to fill his consciousness, he rapidly progresses in spiritual understanding of God and man. Actually, it is Spirit, God, which brings us into this understanding, for Mrs. Eddy tells us (ibid., p. 505), "Spirit imparts the understanding which uplifts consciousness and leads into all truth." Through acknowledgment of the ever-presence of Spirit our thought takes on a more spiritual aspect, and we consequently learn more about God and man.

In Proverbs (3:6) we read, "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Accepting Spirit, or Mind, as our consciousness, we are directed through its angel messages—thoughts which pass from God to man—in what we need to study, and when. And if we willingly follow God's behests, we awake to the fact that the material sense of life is not the real man's state of existence. In Christian Science we learn to deny consistently every material belief that would becloud our understanding of God as omnipresence and of man as His reflection. Obedience to the behests of Spirit is our primal responsibility, and only in proportion as we denounce materiality as unreal and root out of our thinking the false concept of man as a sick, sinning, discordant mortal, do we progress in Christian Science.

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