Article August 30, 1952 Issue

INDIVIDUAL AND CHURCH PROGRESS

PHILIP S. METCALF

Real progress is spiritual, even as the real Church is spiritual. And just as the real, spiritual Church appears to humanity as an institution that is uplifting mankind by destroying error and healing the sick, so real progress, which is man's eternal unfoldment or reflection of good, appears to mankind as improved human conditions. Progress is not merely change; it is change for the better. Progress must be improvement. A restless urge to change just for the sake of changing, or simply because one is tired of the old, is not progress. Rather is it a counterfeit passed on to the unsuspecting by so-called mortal mind.

The motive for spiritual progress is the desire to express God more perfectly in our lives and to bless all mankind as Jesus did by casting out error and healing the sick. Paul described this motive as knowledge of God's will when he wrote to the Colossians of Timothy and himself (Col. 1:9, 10), "We ...do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.

It is an interesting fact that coincident with one's acceptance of the truths of Christian Science is the desire to improve, to progress. This is natural, since one is beginning to gain some glimpse of his true being as the perfect child of God and in consequence desires quickly to attain to that perfect selfhood which is forever free from fear, sickness, and want and is forever conscious of abundance, health, and love.

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