How interesting it is to see the unfoldment of a lovely flower, for instance, a rose. First there is the tight bud with little to reveal the beauty lying within. When the bud opens and the flower appears, we see the beauty of each petal, all fitting together in harmony with the loveliness of color and perfume. The lesson to be learned from this example is that fragrance and purity come from within.
Christian Science reveals to the seeker of Truth the fact that man coexists with God and is not material but wholly spiritual. As one recognizes this, he learns to accept only that which is real and to deny the unreal. He knows that God is made manifest through man, who unfolds His qualities and attributes. Because God is All-in-all, when anything which does not express Him claims existence, we can know that this is but a false, mortal claim which must be rejected. The spiritual idea, which manifests the divine, must replace the false concept.
According to Christian Science, physical ailments or mental disturbances are never part of the experience of the real man, God's image and likeness. The language of Christian Science is spiritual. Frequently when we realize the true meaning of a word, the fears associated with a wrong concept of it fade out of thought. The unfoldment of the spiritual sense of a term, or the reversal of a negative term, is seen to bring out that which is good and harmonious.
When the word "growth," meaning "a morbid formation," is mentioned, perhaps one feels anxiety. How good it is to recognize the perfection and wholeness of man, God's expression, and to know that there is actually only spiritual growth. We must accept the fact that there is only scientific growth, which is the unfoldment of spiritual ideas in consciousness.
True growth, which is growth in grace and in more knowledge of God's glory, is always a blessing, and as we truly grow, we express peace of mind, surety, confidence, dominion, and spiritual power. As we increase in spiritual understanding, we become stronger, more alive, and we gain clearer concepts of man and the universe, controlled by the one and only Mind.
Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 206): "The advancing stages of Christian Science are gained through growth, not accretion; idleness is the foe of progress. And scientific growth manifests no weakness, no emasculation, no illusive vision, no dreamy absentness, no insubordination to the laws that be, no loss nor lack of what constitutes true manhood."
We must go forward! We must progress! We must grow! We cannot stand still in our understanding of divine Science. It is imperative that we constantly claim our oneness, or unity, with God, our oneness with the true idea of man. What rejoicing is felt when one hears a testimony of the healing of a false growth! Every such healing helps to break down the mesmerism of fear on the part of those who are seeking the healing truth.
Many phases of disease appear to be associated with the storing up or secreting of false beliefs. It is frequently found that when resentment, which may have been cherished over a long period, is surrendered, or when injustice is forgiven, the desired healing takes place. Storing up error is of no use to anyone. It is often connected with materiality, with the retention of some material belief. This accumulation of error is frequently based on personal sense with its many miseries, on the carnal mind, which is "enmity against God."
In the unfoldment of good which takes place in consciousness, we recognize that Life is God; that there is only good for God's child, who is inseparable from divine Love. Mrs. Eddy tells us in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 68), "Christian Science presents unfoldment, not accretion; it manifests no material growth from molecule to mind, but an impartation of the divine Mind to man and the universe." Many times harmonious functioning has been established when some hidden wrong thinking has been uncovered and destroyed.
Paul tells us in Acts (17:25) that it is God who "giveth to all life, and breath, and all things." True breathing is spiritual inspiration and is never congested, restricted, or obstructed. As we allow man's true selfhood to unfold to us, the accretion of negative beliefs is seen to have no power. Then healing is realized. The radiation of spiritual ideas dissolves all accretions of wrong thinking.
As the understanding of the omnipresence of God, good, unfolds in our thoughts, false secretions, based on the supposed life and intelligence in matter, are destroyed. The power of God is always present to heal, to give comfort and peace of mind, and this power is ours to express here and now.
How necessary it is for every student of Christian Science to keep before his thought continually the true meaning of the revelation of Christian Science, which came to our Leader. The foundation of the Christian Science movement is divine, and healing is gained through the spiritual understanding of the one God and His creation, which is entirely spiritual. Today, more than ever before, mankind are turning to Christian Science for healing, and students of this Science are learning to demonstrate in their own lives and activities health, harmony, and well-being.
Many years ago the writer was instantaneously healed of a growth in the breast while reading Science and Health. As she read, she saw with great gratitude that the Christ-power, practiced so successfully by Jesus in his healing work, is revealed in this book for our use today.
A student of Christian Science was healed of a growth on the instep when she turned to a practitioner for help. The healing came when she accepted the truth of Mrs. Eddy's statement on page 60 of "Unity of Good" where she says, referring to material sense, "This false sense of substance must yield to His eternal presence, and so dissolve."
We have seen how a flower unfolds from within. We have also discussed growth as the unfoldment in consciousness of true being. This unfoldment brings to thought the true idea of man, who is eternally and infinitely inseparable from the all-seeing and all-acting Mind. Spiritual growth goes on in human consciousness until, as we read in Ephesians (4:13), "We all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."
