Mrs. Eddy, on page 520 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," speaks of growth as "the eternal mandate of Mind." That this growth must be achieved from the basis of the shelter, order, and unity made available only through obedience to the Manual of The Mother Church has been clearly indicated by our Leader; for in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 52) she says that she has "worked to provide a home for every true seeker and honest worker in this vineyard of Truth." The thought of individual advancement, untrammeled by the companionship of more laggardly pilgrims, makes an intriguing appeal which, if listened to, would interfere with the growth of church membership, and lessen the value of collective effort. Jesus evidently viewed a man's capacity for greater advancement in the light of his demonstrated ability to share his growth with others; and in his own career he proved the universal efficacy of a right example in this direction. In the words of the apostle, "He took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham."
In line with Jesus' life and teaching, the inspired labors of our beloved Leader have established the world-wide agencies through which we were led, singly, into the fold of Truth. Our individual growth depends, to a great extent, on our ability to protect and extend the healing mission of Christian Science in its more collective aspects; for one can readily surmise how long any Christian Scientist's faith and demonstration could endure if the supports afforded by our Leader's writings, our periodicals, our lectures, our church services, and our practitioners were withdrawn, and if each one were abandoned to grope along an "individual" path to heaven. Perhaps we should not progress very much farther than in the days before we heard of Christian Science! And if we would but stop for a moment, now and then, to realize that the whole world's need of this healing gospel is just as acute as our own, that its hunger for the bread of Life is just as keen as ours, and that its resistance to the summons of Love is no more formidable than ours was once, then we should not be so fearful of losing heaven by pausing to share our present glimpse of it with the wayfarers around us. For us to beguile ourselves with the argument that Christian Science provides a home for some number short of "the twelve tribes of Israel with all mortals," as Mrs. Eddy writes on page 562 of Science and Health of those who must be saved, is surely to set the seal of finity upon endeavor, and, perhaps, even to rob ourselves of the fruitage of much unselfish toil. As harmony, growth, and fruitful activity become increasingly manifest in those public aspects of our demonstration of the healing power of Christian Science which the world has the opportunity to observe, we shall draw unto ourselves many whom we shall gladly call our friends; and our churches and Cause will progress and prosper.
No sense of stagnation, limitation, overcrowding, rivalry, criticism, or envy can encroach upon the God-ordained freedom which every one of us may enjoy within the home which the Christian Science movement provides. Our realization of this freedom is proportionate to our willingness to acknowledge the boundless effects of right activity, and the unchallenged potency of the divine attractiveness; and it is attested, above all, by our constant endeavor to sustain and protect the right of every other seeker after truth to an equal freedom under God's loving law. Let us not add to the burdens of our fellow-pilgrims by indulging thoughts of condemnation or impatience. As we rise into the purifying atmosphere of justice and true love, we shall find less occasion to apologize for or belittle fellow church-members, practitioners, patients, and church officers. Through humility and gratitude our horizon of achievement will become broader; and even though we may still seem to be part of the church militant, we shall be hastening its growth and our own into the fuller and inevitable approximation to the church universal and triumphant. "For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."
