It is a pity that the word salvation is used so commonly with such an entire absence of proportion. The result is that to the man in the street it has become largely meaningless, if not positively jargon. Writers, like Dickens, have pilloried the offense and the offender in caricatures such as Stiggins and Chadband, but that has aggravated the difficulty rather than ameliorated it. Yet the word after all simply means safety, and if a man's spiritual safety has come to mean nothing to him, then is he a materialist indeed. Christ Jesus, who was not merely the greatest moralist but the most wonderful Scientist whom the world has ever seen, knew better than any teacher what salvation really meant, and gave the quest of it the first place in his philosophy. "Therefore take no thought," he told his audience, in the greatest sermon and most wonderful scientific lecture ever given to the world, "saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

Now exactly what a man makes of this saying is, perhaps, the acid test of what Truth really means to him. It would be as ridiculous and impertinent as it would be unscientific to advise any one how to order his life so as to be in accordance with Truth. The problem is an entirely personal one, and should be wrought out by the individual, without criticism or interference from the outside. The issue is too vital a one for that, for it is never scientific to attempt or advise demonstrations beyond the understanding of the demonstrator. At the same time, the words are so direct as to leave little margin for mental quibbling; and piling Pelion upon Ossa in the way of delay always ends fatally. "The demands of Truth are spiritual," Mrs. Eddy writes, on page 170 of Science and Health, "and reach the body through Mind. The best interpreter of man's needs said: 'Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink.'" What happens to the man who takes undue thought for the morrow, Jesus made quite clear in the story of the rich man who, when his barns were bursting, determined to pull them down and build greater. "Thou fool," came the scorching comment of the man who had laid aside everything to save mankind, "this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."

The man who is rich toward God is essentially the man who is seeking first the kingdom of God, nor is there anything selfish in this. To be rich toward Principle a man must strip himself of everything in human consciousness outside Principle, he must set to work to become a sensual pauper, to be bankrupt of materiality. So far, however, from this being selfish, it is precisely what Christ Jesus meant by taking up the cross daily to follow him. It represents a mental outlook which envisages a true love of mankind, since only as a man puts off the carnal mind, and clothes himself with the Mind of Christ, can he hope to begin to repeat those works of healing and salvation which were enumerated in Christ Jesus' charge to his followers.

It is obvious, therefore, that the way in which to seek the kingdom of God is by being rich toward God, and this, if it is to be accomplished, must be attempted, not by building greater barns for the bestowal of a man's materiality, but by opening those already in existence, and throwing out the contents. In a world of sensuous illusion, the great barn is the human mind. In that are stored all the material beliefs, all the sensual phantasies, all the animal desires, which, in turn, lead a man to build barns in which to bestow the material goods which are the product of his material thinking. This material thinking endeavors to counterfeit infinity by persuading its victim that there is no limit to his necessities, and that his material salvation is dependent upon his making provision for them. Christ Jesus, of course, exactly reversed this cart before the horse method of demonstration. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness," he said, "and all these things"—food, drink, raiment—"shall be added unto you."

Fear, Jesus knew, was the root of a man's sensuality. Therefore he pointed out to his disciples how the birds were fed, and the lilies clothed more gloriously than Solomon. It is fear that brings a man into the world, fear of race exhaustion, just as it is fear of death that takes him out of it; and this, when scientifically analyzed, is fear of death in either case. It is this fear of death which threatens him with want and starvation; it is this fear of death which robs him of his home, and sends him out destitute and in rags; it is this fear of death which makes him sick and makes him sin; and its conqueror is Love. Love is the understanding that man is spiritual, an understanding which robs death of its sting. God is Love, and it is therefore Love "who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." And because of this it was that the apostle John declared, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment;" and that Mrs. Eddy wrote, on page 411 of Science and Health, "Always begin your treatment by allaying the fear of patients. Silently reassure them as to their exemption from disease and danger. Watch the result of this simple rule of Christian Science, and you will find that it alleviates the symptoms of every disease. If you succeed in wholly removing the fear, your patient is healed;" and again, on page 365, "If the Scientist reaches his patient through divine Love, the healing work will be accomplished at one visit, and the disease will vanish into its native nothingness like dew before the morning sunshine."

Before, however, a man can hope to achieve real success in such healing, he must seek first the kingdom of God. To what extent he does this is purely a question between himself and Principle. When he counts his bonds, numbers his farms, or calculates his assets, he will know the justification for what he is doing. At the same time there is not necessarily any greater virtue in poverty than in riches. It depends somewhat how either be acquired. True riches is, of course, contained in an understanding of supply based upon the demonstration of Christ Jesus, an understanding which makes it possible to comprehend metaphysically something of what is meant in the saying, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Frederick Dixon.