"GROWTH is a word that is used a great deal these days in all sorts of contexts. Those who direct public affairs keep telling us that mankind's utilization of the world's resources must grow if all people are to enjoy freedom from want. Theories and formulas about the economic growth of nations abound. At a more individual level, we are all confronted from time to time with the conviction that we would find human existence easier if our incomes and our prospects grew a little faster.
To such ways of thinking, growing is a process of adding to what we already have, the addition of a little more to a limited quantity. We are tempted to believe that if we had that little more, then tomorrow would be better than today. This is the world's belief about poverty and prosperity, and it claims to be both persuasive and pervasive.
Christian Science teaches that true growth is imperative and that it is spiritual. To those becoming interested in Christian Science the prospect is offered of new and unending views of achievement; to those who have already proved the healing and redemptive power of this Science the opportunity is given to understand and to prove increasingly that growth never flags and is never fitful or faltering.
To take advantage of the opportunity to demonstrate true growth it is necessary to understand what it is and then to work according to the rules laid down. On both these subjects Mrs. Eddy makes the standpoint of Christian Science quite clear. On page 68 of Science and Health she writes, "Christian Science presents unfoldment, not accretion." And on page 206 of "Miscellaneous Writings" she says, "The advancing stages of Christian Science are gained through growth, not accretion." Therefore if we are to understand the true spiritual meaning of growth in Christian Science, it is necessary to grasp the difference in meaning between these two words "growth" and "accretion."
The word "growth" implies progressive development, an active state of being or doing. One meaning of "unfoldment" is "full manifestation or realization." Here again is the idea of active being or revelation. One meaning of "accretion" is "increase by external addition or accumulation." The meaning here would seem to be of adding something finite from a measurable starting point.
On the page of "Miscellaneous Writings" already quoted, Mrs. Eddy goes on to say, "Growth is governed by intelligence; by the active, all-wise, law-creating, law-disciplining, law-abiding Principle, God." Because Mind has made man in His image and likeness, man is the manifestation of Mind, all-active Mind. As we grasp the implications of this relationship between God and man, we begin to understand that man's existence is a process of perpetual unfoldment. This real man has infinite resources because he is forever inseparable from his creator. Mrs. Eddy's writings leave no room for doubt that the concept of growth as a process of birth, maturity, and decay in any context is only a mortal belief.
The real man knows nothing about a plodding, speculative exercise in material accumulation. This struggling and this measuring are only beliefs in human consciousness which are overcome as we learn in Christian Science to put on the new man and prove our true relationship with God. In the Science of being, man's infinite resources are never diminished or used up.
Proving our understanding of true growth involves abiding by the rules of growth. Speaking of the student's need to gain spirituality by the study of her works and through demonstration, our Leader says on page 156 of "Miscellaneous Writings," "Experience and, above all, obedience, are the aids and tests of growth and understanding in this direction." Progress in this growth, which is spiritual unfoldment, is therefore seen to depend on study, demonstration, and obedience to God, Principle.
The way in which working on these lines brings both growth and healing occurred sometime ago in the experience of a Christian Scientist who suddenly began to experience headaches, a form of inharmony which he had never experienced before. Instead of dealing with it at once, he casually dismissed the claim of discomfort as something which would soon pass off. But it didn't. It persisted, and it became apparent that it was attached to a belief in weakening sight.
At this point the student realized that systematic work was overdue, and one evening shortly afterwards he sat down with the Concordance to Science and Health and studied systematically every reference to eyesight in Science and Health, following it up with specific metaphysical work, affirming spiritual truths and denying material errors. In about forty minutes the pain disappeared, and it has not returned.
But there remained a dull sensation, and a suggestion persisted that it might return. Shortly afterwards, while he was still working prayerfully to destroy this claim of error, he caught himself peering at print, and the thought flashed through his consciousness: "Stop peering. There is no strain in Mind, God." Then another thought came: "Stop accepting the world belief in tension. Progress and growth are normal and need no rushing around to achieve."
That was the end of the difficulty. Looking back he saw that he had accepted for a while the belief that it was necessary in daily, human routine and endeavor to strive, strain, and struggle to accomplish anything. Using Science and Health as a textbook had brought healing and growth in understanding.
Because growth and unfoldment are spiritual, they are never disorderly or out of season. We can never in reality have too much growth at the wrong time or entertain a wrong sense of growth. As human beings we are constantly invited to believe that weather and crops may vary or that opportunities of one kind or another may be scarce or too plentiful. As we learn in Christian Science to claim our spiritual sonship with God, as Jesus taught it when he said, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30), we begin to prove that we are constantly and continuously receiving right ideas, which are being created and sustained by Principle, God. These ideas are never in disarray. They are infinitely and eternally good and applicable to every phase of human experience.
