Editorial September 9, 1985 Issue

True progress is perpetual

CAROLYN B. SWAN

Although we may not always realize it, genuine progress—the development of right ideas—is always going on. God is the source and sustainer of spiritual ideas and their development. Man, God's highest idea—His spiritual likeness and our true, perfect identity—unceasingly expresses this activity. The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, explains: "Infinite progression is concrete being, which finite mortals see and comprehend only as abstract glory. As mortal mind, or the material sense of life, is put off, the spiritual sense and Science of being is brought to light."^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 82.}

There are times in human living, though, when the upward course of our progress in realizing true being may seem reversed, like those places on mountain roads where the angle of the surrounding terrain makes the road appear to be sloping downhill when it's actually climbing. At these times, even though we're trying as hard as we can to advance, appearances may tempt us to believe we're getting nowhere or maybe even losing ground.

Still, if our goal is to be better Christian disciples, to put off the false sense of being and put on the true—and if we're steadily striving for this most worthy of goals—retrogression isn't possible. The spiritual development that comes through earnest Christian discipleship is God-derived; it can't be turned back. Because it is spiritual, its course shouldn't be compared to the trends of materiality that may seem to surround us. Their ups and downs are meaningless illusions; progress is the reality.

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