Editorial March 7, 1931 Issue

Aids to Salvation

Clifford P. Smith

For everyone who has a human or finite concept of his own existence, this concept itself must be his main problem. Such a person requires not only the correct concept of infinite Life, and of his unity with this Life, but also the consequent view of what seems to be a finite and separate life. Human life is commonly regarded as an existence extending from birth to death. Christian Science presents a different view; this Science teaches that no one should regard human life either as ending with death or as subject to it; rather should everyone regard human life as a composite mental state extending, in the case of anyone confused in this state, from the present moment to his achieving complete salvation from it.

Human life is a mixture of material illusion with spiritual consciousness. Complete salvation, therefore, consists of getting entirely free from this composite state and demonstrating complete unity with the one infinite Life. This process, for any person, must be based on the absolute facts of being as existing for him and as existing now. Nevertheless, one may be aided by a scientific outlook toward the future of human life.

According to the King James Version, Jesus said he came "that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10).Modern translators agree that the comparative "more" does not belong in this text; and Moffatt gives it this translation: "I have come that they may have life and have it to the full." The Master's mission was to give, to make known, to all mankind, not only a more abundant life, but also the full and true Life.

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