Editorial April 19, 1952 Issue

PROGRESS

Helen Wood Bauman

There is no end to progress, because there is no limit to the extension and expansion of good. The boundless possibilities of good make it infinite. Just as in mathematical computation no place can be reached where another number cannot be added, so in the unfoldment of divine Principle there can be no point where good will not continue to be expressed. Good multiplies with action, and without action there could be no progress. In Science, God eternally unfolds fresh activity of good through man, His spiritual expression. Because there is no period of stagnation, of retrogression, of deterioration, in divine Love there can be no such period in man's experience, for man, as Christian Science reveals, is Love's idea, God's reflex image. It is the law of God that progress be perpetual in man's reflection of Love's character and unfoldment of its design.

Human beings may regard such statements of absolute fact a little wistfully, since to their present limited sense of life perpetual progress seems abstract and retrogression claims to await everyone. But Christian Science makes absolute truth practical. It shows that the real order of life becomes law to our present experience when it is understood and persistently demonstrated. As we turn from the mortal sense of ourselves as limited mortals and dwell understandingly in the consciousness of man's perpetual unfoldment of spiritual good we find frustration and stagnation disappearing and our true ability to express more and more of the good that is God appearing. And with that good comes the opportunity to use it in healing service to mankind.

Mary Baker Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 117), "A progressive life is the reality of Life that unfolds its immortal Principle." But she makes this statement after a simple analysis of the requirements for progress that anyone may grasp. Here are her words: "Never absent from your post, never off guard, never ill-humored, never unready to work for God,—is obedience; being 'faithful over a few things.' If in one instance obedience be lacking, you lose the scientific rule and its reward: namely, to be made 'ruler over many things.'"

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