The honest seeker in Christian Science is a worker, not a theorist. We all, no doubt, have a great desire to experience the glorious possibilities of Truth, but are we always willing to demonstrate what we already know? When we are consistently practicing the truth, we are achieving more than an intellectual knowledge; we are gaining understanding. We become aware of individual advancement. No iota of good is ever lost, regardless of seeming mistakes or reversals which would tend to discourage, and we should not waste time on mortal mind's attempts to stop our forward journey. The error never really exists, but demonstration upon demonstration shows the steady unfoldment of good.
Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, deeply understood human efforts. Among her many wise counselings are these words in her book "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 341): "First purify thought, then put thought into words, and words into deeds; and after much slipping and clambering, you will go up the scale of Science to the second rule, and be made ruler over many things." To try to force spiritual growth simply because one can theoretically see farther ahead than has been attained by proof is not wisdom. On the other hand, we must be ever alert to the mortal mind tendency to remain in dreams of material sense. Our constant desire should be to emerge from matter and to embrace, eagerly and joyously, the newness of spiritual life. If our progress seems slow, we may need to express more humility, obedience, patience, and love.
We can all make greater efforts to practice in daily life the simple truths of this Christly religion, Christian Science. For instance, we can reason that if man is the reflection of God, he cannot express such un-Godlike beliefs as resentment, criticism, anger, or self-will. It must be seen that these beliefs cannot attach themselves to man and have never belonged to man, nor can man be made to act in accordance with them. Because they are beliefs of mortal mind, one can know that they are in reality no part of himself or of anyone else.
