Editorial December 27, 1919 Issue

True Sacrifice

Ella W. Hoag

The psalmist had a clear understanding of what true sacrifice meant when he wrote: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." From the beginning of time, mankind, in the realization of their sins against God, have recognized that in some way the sense of separation from God—brought about by these sins—must be overcome, and they have always glimpsed the fact that this could only be done by some form of sacrifice on their part; or in other words, by their giving up something, although they did not know exactly what that something might be.

In the earliest days of Bible history men began this process by bringing to God all sorts of material offerings, and these offerings were supposed to be acceptable in the ratio of the value to the givers of the things relinquished by them. This custom continued for many ages; but because the effort began in the supposed value of material possessions, as time went on the claims of selfishness and greed, of hypocrisy and dishonesty in connection with such giving, continually increased. These offerings, therefore, became farther and farther removed from true sacrifice and were an offense rather than a right acknowledgment of obligation to God,—as witness the testimony of Isaiah: "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord. Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me...Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well."

Still mankind went on sinning; still they went on looking for the possibility of reaching God by this sacrificing of material objects. The prophets were calling upon men again and again to awaken to the fact that God would be satisfied only by their obedience to Him. When finally Jesus came declaring, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me," he presented a new idea of sacrifice. Many righteous men since then have been seeking to know just what this idea included. No one, however, could understand it sufficiently to teach fully its demonstrable nature until the revelation of Christian Science was given to Mrs. Eddy. This revelation shows that true sacrifice does not mean what the ordinary religious teaching has presented; namely, something more or less ascetic in its tendency. The schools have taught that material desires must be denied, but they have denied them from the standpoint that in giving them up they were yielding something real; that they were sacrificing something valuable, something it was difficult to go without. Such sacrifice almost inevitably resulted in a state of self-righteousness, since the mortal considered himself praiseworthy in yielding that which he very much wanted, that which he thought was real, but which he believed, nevertheless, God did not desire him to have.

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