Editorial June 19, 1926 Issue

Sacrifice

Ella W. Hoag

"The spiritual essence of blood is sacrifice." So wrote Mrs. Eddy, the beloved Leader of Christian Science, in the chapter on Atonement and Eucharist (p. 25) in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." When we remember that in all ordinary belief blood stands for life, it is illuminating to be told that sacrifice is "the spiritual essence of blood." Because Christian Science shows that all existence is based in divine Mind, it does not take long for one who accepts this teaching to understand that if he would find true life he must mentally sacrifice all that pertains to the beliefs in a material sense of life.

Sacrifice, therefore, may be said to be the yielding of nothing and the gaining of something; the letting go of the false and the winning of the true. To the human sense this may often seem to involve considerable struggle, since the illusions of material belief are not always readily unseen and thereby relinquished.

In "No and Yes" (p. 33) Mrs. Eddy tells us: "Self-sacrifice is the highway to heaven. The sacrifice of our blessed Lord is undeniable." She also adds, "The spilling of human blood was inadequate to represent the blood of Christ, the outpouring love that sustains man's at-one-ment with God." In this statement of our precious Leader, she has defined for all time the true nature of sacrifice and its transcendent value. Here she shows us plainly that true sacrifice always results in the gain of good—an estimate quite contrary to the ordinary belief, which has been all too apt to present sacrifice as involving some sense of loss.

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