Editorial December 13, 1930 Issue

Mastery of One's Self

Duncan Sinclair

On page 254 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy writes: "But the human self must be evangelized. This task God demands us to accept lovingly to-day, and to abandon so fast as practical the material, and to work out the spiritual which determines the outward and actual." In this way is the mastery gained over one's self. And who will say that Christian Science does not set before us the highest of ideals? As do the teachings of the Prophet of Nazareth, it insists on the complete evangelization of the human selfhood.

Mortal are apparently living under the influence of the material senses, the great majority of them being at present without the understanding which would enable them to see the falsity of these senses and to rise above them. And in the proportion that they are dominated by material sense they are enslaved. This means that they are unhappy, joyless, discontented, discordant, and often sinful or sick. It is well known that sin is frequently the forerunner of disease. Indeed, Paul goes farther than this, for he says in the sixth chapter of Romans that "the wages of sin is death." Besides, rarely if ever do evil thinking and evil doing affect the evil thinker and evil doer alone; their sinister influence frequently extends far beyond the transgressor, carrying tribulation to others.

Mrs. Eddy writes (ibid., p. 407): "Man's enslavement to the most relentless masters—passion, selfishness, envy, hatred, and revenge—is conquered only by a mighty struggle. Every hour of delay makes the struggle more severe." Our Leader never draws the veil over sin. She never fails to picture its hideous nature; and she insists continually that men must conquer it, warning them against delay in doing so. But how is the enslavement to be broken? How is the victory over material sensuousness to be won? How is the mastery over one's self to be gained? The answer is, Through the spiritual understanding which Christian Science gives.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Among the Churches