When one observes the elaborate military preparations going on in the world (and he probably knows of only a small part of such preparations), he marvels at the reluctance of humanity to exert a greater spiritual effort to wage war against materialism, the belief in finite matter—the very opposite of infinite Spirit, God. The failure of Christians in general to utilize to the full the powers of Christianity in this higher warfare has brought the world to its present precarious pass.

Christianity as Christ Jesus demonstrated it and as Mary Baker Eddy explains it in its Science calls for an all-out effort to put off fundamental materialism with every ignorant, fearful, or sinful belief it includes. This warfare begins within individual thought and from there must extend to all humanity. It requires the giving up of the false self that embodies and often cherishes materialism. In other words, it requires self-abnegation. Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 568), "Self-abnegation, by which we lay down all for Truth, or Christ, in our warfare against error, is a rule in Christian Science."

Jesus gave the scientific rule in these words (John 12:25): "He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." Those who have obeyed in some measure the rule of self-abnegation know the joy and freedom that come with the giving up of belief in a material self and the awakening realization of a spiritual self, which is God's likeness. This means going against the tide of a largely materialistic society, which accepts without challenge the agelong human beliefs of birth and death, with all the struggles a mortal's life includes.

General belief largely shapes the experience of an individual until he learns through Christian Science the meaning of the life of Jesus, who triumphantly achieved sacrifice of the mortal self and set the rule of procedure for all men in their warfare against the material sense of existence. The tide of materialism appeared to be irresistible in the era in which Jesus lived, yet he turned that tide and directed human thought in an opposite direction. The tide of materialism appears to be strong today. But even though a tide may seem to advance relentlessly, that tide will surely turn. Christian Science reveals the power that turns thought toward God and inspires the love of Spirit.

Materialism, which is sin in its broadest sense, is conquered in the measure that individuals stop witnessing to sinful, material life and give evidence, through the spiritualization of their characters, their interests, and their actions, of the Christly man that God makes. Mrs. Eddy says in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 67): "Silencing self, alias rising above corporeal personality, is what reforms the sinner and destroys sin. In the ratio that the testimony of material personal sense ceases, sin diminishes, until the false claim called sin is finally lost for lack of witness."

Those who have struggled against the merciless forces of pain, the demoralizing enticements of lust, and other phases of human will let loose learn what scientific warfare entails. They find that they must conquer mortal mind's claim to conscious identity if they would be free from the sins and sicknesses that false identity produces and supports. Then they are free to assert the identity which is conscious only of God and the real, spiritual world. They have obeyed the rule of self-abnegation, and they reap the reward of obedience.

Sometimes the efforts of the student of Christian Science are too halfhearted to root out the fundamental materialism that constitutes his seeming mortal self. He is contented to put up with the physical senses as long as they do not bother him. But this only prolongs the false sense of self and makes the struggle harder. Now is the time for one to undermine materialism by giving oneself up to God and His ideal of manhood and by realizing that a spiritual, sinless identity is the only identity one has ever had.

The basic error in every human difficulty is undestroyed materialism: the belief in a mind that is not God and a creation that is finite and material, a man who is mortal and an environment that is not God's kingdom. If sin or sickness is not conquered, this indicates that a more complete self-abnegation is needed, a more vigorous warfare must be waged, a higher selfhood must appear.

While never discounting the wisdom of a nation's maintaining armaments at the present time as a means of preventing war, the Christian Scientist knows that basic warfare entails the putting off of the false self and all tendencies to accept matter as substance. Whoever has glimpsed the glory of real existence in Spirit knows that he has the support of the Father in every effort he makes to prove his spiritual manhood. Applying the rule of self-abnegation, he will contribute to the victory of mankind over all that is godless and untrue.

Helen Wood Bauman