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.

Although the demands of Christian discipleship never slacken, every willing disciple can always measure up to them. Everyone can fulfill the two great commandments stressed by Christ Jesus: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. ... Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." ^{Matt. 22:37, 39.}

No one has at any time or under any circumstance more to meet or less to meet than these demands. None is asked to love more or less than all he can. Loving God and man with undivided affection, allegiance, and intelligence constitutes Christian discipleship. As the mandate of Christ—the divine message to humanity that Jesus so fully taught and practiced— love for God and man is the heavenly, heavenward path every Christian disciple must travel. And every gain made in understanding and obeying Christ's commands advances us spiritually.

In proportion as we give our whole loyalty, energy, and labor to loving God and man, we rise above belief in life, substance, and wisdom apart from Love. We rise higher in our ability to demonstrate that God is the only Life, Soul or Spirit, and Mind—the only Love. We realize that our true identity, man, is God's likeness—complete and perfect, yet forever developing. And of this Godward journey that is actually an awakening to eternal reality, Mrs. Eddy says, "Every step of progress is a step more spiritual." ^{The People's Idea of God, p. 1.}

We cannot fairly measure spiritual progress by material standards such as wealth, possessions, fame, physical appearance, popular favor, or world conditions. Because the material senses are liars, they cannot truthfully confirm our growth in Christian discipleship. But we can be sure that healing, regenerative effects are visible and tangible—real—to spiritual sense.

Spiritual progress brings bountiful blessings, although these don't always appear in the ways we may tend to outline. If we find ourselves wanting effects we don't get, we may need to reassess our position in relation to the ultimate goal Mrs. Eddy sets forth in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. She writes: "To ascertain our progress, we must learn where our affections are placed and whom we acknowledge and obey as God. If divine Love is becoming nearer, dearer, and more real to us, matter is then submitting to Spirit." ^{Science and Health, p. 239.}

Following Christ, Truth, always leads us to the realization of enduring good—genuine health, unfeigned holiness, and unspoiled joy. And even though we may walk through what appear to be valleys of doubt and discouragement, we are still moving onward and upward spiritually when our hopes, endeavors, and expectations are stayed on God.

Science and Health maps out the way of perpetual progress and locates us on that map. It says: "Every day makes its demands upon us for higher proofs rather than professions of Christian power. These proofs consist solely in the destruction of sin, sickness, and death by the power of Spirit, as Jesus destroyed them. This is an element of progress, and progress is the law of God, whose law demands of us only what we can certainly fulfil." ^{Ibid., p. 233.}

The fact is, then, that we are included in progress. Through understanding of and fidelity to God, we claim our unity with the perpetual progress that He sustains. We express our inherent God-given qualities in moral and spiritual development. And as we do, we are increasingly able to see, through spiritual sense, the signs of the times that actually surround us—signs that clearly point the upward way of Christian discipleship by bearing indisputable witness to the healing and regenerative power of true progress.

CAROLYN B. SWAN