Article May 12, 1928 Issue

No Selfhood Apart from God

HELEN L. MC DEARMON

The earnest desire of conscientious men and women throughout the ages has been to become unselfed; and those who have manifested the divine quality of unselfishness have stood out as helping to meet the great needs of their fellow-men. Unselfishness, however, has often been thought of as a special gift to certain privileged persons. What a revelation and joy to learn through Christian Science that all may attain to unselfishness! God has given to man all good, and never has decreed that man should entertain a limited, selfish sense.

On page 312 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy says, "How true it is that whatever is learned through material sense must be lost because such so-called knowledge is reversed by the spiritual facts of being in Science." Sometimes we may seem reluctant to relinquish our faith in a mortal material selfhood and its false beliefs; but when we were harboring those beliefs, did they ever bring us any happiness, any freedom? Quite the contrary. So, if the struggle to free ourselves from the belief in this so-called self seems at times to be difficult, are we going to be poor soldiers and give up? Never! Was any battle ever won by giving up? No! And we know that our warfare is not with anything real.

It is obvious that Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians wished to emphasize the fact that our warfare is not with persons or things, but against the subtle false belief in a selfhood apart from God. He says, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." We need to know, therefore, that there are not minds many which can transfer evil suggestions to one another. Mortal mind, expressed as unkind thoughts, selfish purposes, impure desires, false pleasures and fears, confers no lasting joy or peace, and we soon become aware of the folly of allowing ourselves to be bound to such illusion.

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