Editorial August 10, 1946 Issue

Self-Abnegation

Margaret Morrison

No one need fear or shun the word "self-abnegation" in the belief that it means giving up—giving up that which is desirable, necessary, or happifying. Self-abnegation is to be considered not so much from the standpoint of giving up as from that of gaining, for it connotes untold possibilities of joy, inspiration, health, and freedom. John the Baptist presented this mode of self-abnegation very clearly when he said, "He must increase, but I must decrease;" that is, the Christ must increase and the human concept decrease. True self-abnegation indicates the decrease of the falsities of materialism, a personal concept of self, and an increase of the glorious, imperishable facts of Spirit, the appearing of the Christ.

Self-abnegation means abnegating the belief in a divisible God whose creation has in some way become separated from Him and His government; the belief that God has created or permits harmful and inimical forces to act to obstruct His will, defeat His power, and destroy His creation. This illogical belief with all its absurdities and cruelties is to be utterly abnegated for the understanding of one indivisible God, who maintains His universe, including man, immutably perfect, as He Himself is. The Christ, the spiritual idea, that which is born of God and overcomes the world, is the only true individuality, and the abnegation of personal self and sense heralds the brightness of the coming of the Christ and the kingdom of heaven within. Why then fear or shrink from the thought of self-abnegation?

On page 568 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy writes, "Self-abnegation, by which we lay down all for Truth, or Christ, in our warfare against error, is a rule in Christian Science." What are some of the things to be abnegated, that the Christ—true selfhood—may appear and increase? The pettinesses of personality are among the first to go: the jealousies, the fears, the prideful assertions of personal ambition and brief authority.

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