Article October 17, 1908 Issue

WORKING OUT ONE'S SALVATION

PROF. JOEL RUFUS MOSLEY.

In the light of the Science of being,—that God is Spirit and perfect, and that man and the universe are spiritual and perfect,—the meaning of human life is realized only as we bring into consciousness, activity, and expression this perfection of God, man, and the universe. The bringing of this perfection to light in terms of human life and experience is the working out of our salvation. The complete coming of heaven to earth—the spiritual sense of being, or the consciousness of the allness and goodness of God, of Spirit, of Life, and of Love, here and everywhere, and of man now and forever spiritual and perfect as His image and likeness—this is the fullness of salvation for man and the universe.

Every thought and activity that gives recognition and response to the nature, unfoldments, and promptings of God and of our own spiritual and real selfhood, not only purifies the inner life from sin, fear, and discord, but also improves external human conditions. Everything that is thought and loved as well as done in secret, is always proclaimed on the housetops,—is made manifest in and on our bodies and environments, as well as actually confessed by us or found out by others. And this law by which the inner becomes the outer is a law of Love as well as of justice. It is just as loving to us that our errors should come to light as that our virtues should manifest themselves in terms of our whole being and environment. It is one of God's wise, kind, and effective ways of discouraging and destroying sin and of rewarding and encouraging virtue. It is as much to the glory of God as it is to our highest good that the evil comes to the surface to be destroyed, while the good comes to light to remain. The evil is punished and the good is rewarded not because God hates us, but because He loves us; not because He means for us to be lost, but to be saved and saved through our own choice and efforts as well as His.

The law by which the inner takes form in the outer, by which our mental and moral and spiritual nature and activities manifest themselves in and on the body and the whole external environment, is best explained, and so far as we know can only be explained, on the basis that "all is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation" (Science and Health, p. 468). If this fundamental concept of the idealism of Christian Science is seen and accepted, then it becomes clear how it is that all false thinking and living become manifest as undesirable conditions of body and environment, and how it is that all right thinking and living manifest themselves in desirable conditions. It is seen why and how it is that the very nature of all error is to obscure our sense of the real, the true, the beautiful, and the good, while the perception and the love and all of the activities of good uplift and heal and beautify one's whole being and surroundings. The Science of the sciences is seen to be right thinking and living. The Principle of right thinking as well as of right living is revealed to be ever-present and omniscient Mind or God.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

SCIENTIFIC CHRISTIANITY