Editorial March 10, 1934 Issue

Joyous Sacrifice

W. Stuart Booth

The ordinary thought of sacrifice, involving as it does the surrender or destruction of something desirable, is not particularly joyous and attractive to men. For ages sacrifice was associated almost exclusively with and offering of what is called animal or vegetable life for the purpose of placating or appeasing a deity, and so it was regarded as an essential part of religious worship. Obviously this false sense of sacrifice sprang from wrong and humanized concepts of Deity. Some of the Hebrew prophets and leaders endeavored to uplift the thought of the people by presenting a higher and truer concept of God and of men's obligations to Him. The Psalmist, addressing his prayer to God, said: "Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."

Christ Jesus proved by his healing and saving works that he possessed the true concept of God. And it is reasonable to assume that he had the right sense of sacrifice and worship. He knew that God is the impartial, unvarying, all-loving Father or creator of all that is real; and that God's creation, including man, is good, harmonious, and perfect—is Godlike. Thus Christ Jesus knew that God, divine Love, requires no burnt offerings to reëstablish right relations between Himself and man. But he also knew that ignorant men, misled by material theories, must needs sacrifice or surrender sin and material beliefs that they may realize the indissoluble connection between God and His image or reflection, man. Since this does not involve the relinquishment of aught which is good, helpful, pleasure-bestowing, and truly desirable, it follows that sacrifice, rightly regarded, is joyous indeed.

When instructing his followers about the fasting which was observed by the Hebrews, Christ Jesus said that they should not appear sad; and then he added, "But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face." Surely those who realize something of the omnipresence and omnipotence of God, good, should have bright and countenances. Christian Science teaches that true fasting is not abstinence from food, but scientific and Christian denial of so-called material sense. Such denial is made from the spiritual standpoint of the allness of God, good, divine Mind, whence the falsity of matter is deduced. Since the flesh, or matter, is contrary to God, Spirit, Truth, as the Bible states, it is reasonable to classify material sense as erroneous. Hence, the denial of it is as joyous as is a mathematician's denial and correction of an error in his computations.

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