Article October 15, 1966 Issue

"Who did hinder you?"

ANNA A. VINSON

Who at one time or another has not wished to be better, to be more loving, more worthwhile? One desiring such progress may often ask himself: "What can I do? How do I get started?" Centuries ago the Apostle Paul spoke to a group of people in Galatia who had accepted his teaching but who obviously weren't progressing. He posed these questions to them: "Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?"^{ Gal. 3:3;} and, "Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?"^ 5:7;

The answers to such questions require honesty of thought. Are one's happiness and progress stifled because of ignorance, fear, doubt, or disobedience? One can correct such erroneous thinking by gaining a true understanding of God and man. Christian Science teaches that God is infinite Mind, omnipotent Truth, divine Love, and that man is made in His image and likeness. The understanding of these truths negates superstition and the belief in another power or in a material creator and a material creation. The demonstration of these facts impels progress.

Intellectual pride and the belief that there is pleasure and pain in matter or that matter is medicinal and curative are deterrents to spiritual progress. Christ Jesus taught that in order to progress, men must become as little children and give up their old beliefs. Humility is a prerequisite of progress. Mrs. Eddy states, "What hinders man's progress is his vain conceit, the Phariseeism of the times, also his effort to steal from others and avoid hard work; errors which can never find a place in Science."^{ Miscellaneous Writings, p. 234;}

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