EVERY Christian Scientist deeply desires to grow in the understanding of God and His Christ. The new student looks forward with eagerness to the time when he may be able to do the works which, in his awakened joy, seem to him supremely holy and desirable. In his widening experience, his zest may become somewhat subdued by various un-looked-for difficulties, but his hope is definitely reenforced by the conviction that he must inevitably grow; for he knows that this is the only process through which he may win his salvation from mortal beliefs and discords.
In the natural world, so called, growth is so universal an activity that it attracts but little attention, except from those whose profession it is to study its methods. It is simple, because it is natural; but it is also marvelous, evidencing the existence of an infinitely wise Providence, which men have widely acknowledged, but little understood.
Growth in spiritual understanding, which nature's process somewhat symbolizes, is also natural, orderly, and inevitable. Both in the material world and in the realm of spiritual thinking, growth is the result of partaking of and assimilating proper nutriment. Nature provides sustenance for the tree, the flower, the fruit. In the realm of right thinking, divine Love is constantly imparting to aspiring desire the needful spiritual nourishment for assimilation and consequent progress Spiritward. Prophet and Psalmist caught glimpses of the constant nourishing provision of divine Love for all that reflects it. In beautiful figurative language Hosea represents God as saying: "I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree." And the Psalmist declared that "the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon."
