Article January 2, 1904 Issue

Sacrifices

A. T. M.

Doing Truth's work may seem hard, but it is no hardship, no sacrifice, and no meed of praise is due to those who attempt it, for they follow only what is for their own best interest. The idea of selfishness is, to get the most possible for yourself, but if one tried to be "scientifically selfish," that is, if he studied how to get the most for himself, he would be unselfish, for it is the unselfish one who gets the most—who has his measure pressed down full and running over. Let us be honest with ourselves and rationality will aid us to get rid of that hindering and blinding feeling of martyrdom which we carry around when we imagine that we have given up something for Truth, and contemplate how much we have done, how well we did it, how hard it was, or how hard it is going to be to finish it.

When we do our work right we do not have to give up anything worth the having, and what we get in return is many times more than what we once expected. There are no "sacrifices" for Truth, for nothing that is real can be lost.

He who thinks he has made or has yet to make a sacrifice, and grieves that he has to give up something for Truth, places a wrong value somewhere. To our material sense all values are realtive only: a thing is big or small, usual or remarkable, desirable or undesirable only as it is compared with something else. Wonderful is merely a point of view. The material and spiritual are opposites; the smallest spiritual thing or demonstration is a wonderful miracle if compared with anything material. But we cannot look back into the material to seek grounds for comparisons; we must look forward into the spiritual and then there is nothing that is remarkable, for in the realm of the real there is only good, and good is what is natural and to be expected, whether manifested in the healing of sickness or in the raising of the dead. It is not remarkable to heal, for harmony is natural. Mrs. Eddy tells us that sickness and wrong are the unnatural and remarkable. Any one who says he has had a "remarkable" demonstration can use this expression only by way of contrast with his sense of limitation before he know that God is All.

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