Salvation, not Condemnation

Violet Ker Seymer

Spiritual understanding and salvation are inseparable, for this understanding, born of Spirit, apprehends God, good. Plato gave utterance to a profound truth when he said, "What thou seest, that thou beest." To see good and express what he sees is the Christian Scientist's paramount purpose. Of the one who has "clean hands, and a pure heart," it is written in Psalms, "He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation." God-bestowed righteousness is unsullied and permanent. On this basis, whoever maintains the activity of true thinking by his reflection of the one Mind shall and does "receive the blessing from the Lord."

If we are experiencing discord in any direction, we need to discover in what respect we are agreeing with and submitting to the discordant evidence of the physical senses. Having discovered the nature of the lapse, we can resolutely and permanently turn away from the error to the truth of being, and thereby demonstrate harmony. Each one of us can awaken to use the law of salvation still more energetically and co-operate still more consistently with the healing power of Truth.

In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 261) our Leader writes, "Man as God's idea is already saved with an everlasting salvation." Perhaps material sense argues that one is so stupid, so steeped in sin and fear, that it would seem impossible and unsuitable to think of himself as God's perfect idea. It is evident that sin and sinner are the very reverse of Mind and its idea. But mortal mind's insidious whisper that we are not yet worthy to declare "the whole truth and nothing but the truth" is the lie of the serpent. Should we entertain this lie, we should be turning our back on the freedom of God-inspired thinking which Christian Science presents for the use of all. Each one can shake himself free from the incubus of belief in evil by spiritually understanding that only God and His perfect ideas truly exist, and that in Truth there are no evil influences or evildoers.

Our Leader writes (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 94): "When all fleshly belief is annihilated, and every spot and blemish on the disk of consciousness is removed, then, and not till then, will immortal Truth be found true, and scientific teaching, preaching, and practice be essentially one. 'Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. ... for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.' (Romans xiv. 22, 23.)" Why should anyone allow himself to continue in wrongdoing when he can remedy it through obeying the rules of Christian Science? Why should anyone continue to consent to the condemnation of material sense when this Science holds out to all the pure plan of salvation? When we condemn false knowledge as unworthy to be entertained, credited, or feared, it ceases to condemn or to deceive us. We are then learning to see and prove ourselves to be apart from the curse of Adam, and forever one with the blessing of true sonship.

Let one who hesitates to deny the insidious arguments of fear, doubt, and hypocrisy note our Leader's question (Science and Health, p. 522), "Does the creator condemn His own creation?" There is blessing, not condemnation, for all God's creation, and His is the only creation. "Without him was not any thing made that was made." Salvation in Christian Science entails awakening to the infinite harmony and oneness of God and man. Therefore we must not deliberately allow any false mental picture to linger in our consciousness, but must dissociate ourselves from all discord. Thus only do we acknowledge the perfection of God manifested in the perfection of His own likeness.

And because it is not presumptuous to find refuge in the fact of God's perfection, it is likewise not presumptuous to think of our true being as the expression or reflection of this one all-inclusive perfection. There should be no wistful sense of separation from God in one who desires to know and to express only that which is real and true. Mortal mind, the perpetual accuser of humanity, has no ground to stand on, no law by which to operate, and no victim to claim, because man in God's likeness knows himself as the perfect idea of the one perfect Mind. Our declarations of Truth may need to be far ahead of what have yet demonstrated; but the way of true declaration is the way of spiritual unfoldment and demonstration. We should remember that the truth we declare is eternally established and demonstrated throughout the realm of infinite Mind.

Every hour it is essential for the honest student of Christian Science to declare with conviction, "Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ." Truth stands behind its own proclamatin and upholds every staunch witness.

Violet Ker Seymer

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Notes from the Publishing Society

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