It is a curious fact that while the rapid growth of the Christian Science movement, as a whole is undeniable, the temptation to believe that progress is slow in the earnest student's particular community, or in his own individual consciousness, often seems to present itself. This lying argument, which is due to mortal mind's utter blindness to truth, seeks to manifest itself in the form of discouragement. While it is true that Principle never allows us to forget that "we are all capable of more than we do" (Science and Health, p. 89), the circumstances of a certain ancient law case heard in the English courts in 1706 seem by analogy to throw fresh light on the Wayshower's encouraging parable of the kingdom of heaven being like a grain of mustard seed, and to show its present day applicability to the growth of our beloved cause both from the individual and from the collective standpoint.
The case is that of Thornborrow us. Whitacre (2 Ld. Raymond, 1164), and the facts, according to the defendant's counsel, were that his client had agreed, in consideration of a small sum of money, to deliver to the plaintiff two grains of rye corn on a certain Monday, four the following Monday, eight the Monday after, and so on in geometrical progression for a period of one year. In other words, the number of grains was to be increased each week by the same number as had been delivered on the previous Monday, and this was to be continued for a period of fifty-two weeks. Without doubt the defendant thought he had contracted to deliver only a small quantity of grain, but it was said at the trial that "all the rye in the world was not so much" as he had promised, the quantity amounting to 524,288,000 quarters—a quarter being eight bushels, or a fourth of a ton.
Now every student of Christian Science knows that each time he has cast out of consciousness a single wrong belief and so made room for a better mental concept, that process has invariably undermined at least one other false belief and so made him receptive to much more of truth than he had realized when dealing with the first-mentioned false belief. Comparative retrospection in moments of clear vision will thus always show the working student that his perception of good has increased in the ratio, so to speak, of geometrical progression.
