Progress is universal and compelling in its appeal. An individual, a community, a nation, may seem to shut out its rays of promise, its hope and good will, but the unfaltering law of progress tends to penetrate the walls of self-will and work its way into the very heart of humanity. Wise, indeed, is the one who questions the nature of that which enters so unfailingly into the working out of human experience; and happy, indeed, is he who gains an understanding of its underlying law.
Mrs. Eddy has written in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 170), "Spiritual causation is the one question to be considered, for more than all others spiritual causation relates to human progress." This statement strikingly emphasizes the fact that human progress depends on something far deeper than is ordinarily comprehended; and it startles the one who is seeking a material end by material means. The consideration of human progress from the standpoint of spiritual causation brings thought into line with the words of Christ Jesus, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
One cannot go forward so long as an obstacle lies in his path. The overcoming of an obstacle is the overcoming of that which limits; and this overcoming makes one free to proceed. It is therefore apparent how important it is to gain a knowledge of the truth, and how futile it is to expect to advance without this knowledge. Had Pilate realized the import of his own question, "What is truth?' his thought would have been opened to the inevitable answer. Had he been awake to the possibilities that lay in his query, he would have been ready for the opportunities to have it answered. Thus his failure to recognize in Jesus' life a fulfillment of the truth lost for him a response to his question from Truth, and cut him off from a progressive step.
