Salvation and Overcoming A. E. BRANDT            The teaching of Christian Science by no means denies, but definitely affirms, that Jesus sacrificed every human and mortal sense of life, thus proving "once and for all" that real life is immortal and that man is the immortal child of God. This understanding of the true meaning of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, as gained in Christian Science, enables his followers to work out their salvation as directed by Paul. Jesus, as the Way-shower, declared and showed the necessity of overcoming all evil in order to inherit the salvation promised. And therefore we read thus in the second chapter of Revelation: "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life," "He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death," "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna," "He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him I will give power over the nations;" in the third chapter, "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment," "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God," "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne;" and in the twenty-first, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son."          The emphasis here so repeatedly laid upon overcoming and within the space of a few chapters, shows its vital necessity in gaining the rewards promised; and the critic's quotation from Paul, "By grace are ye saved through faith," is pertinent in showing how overcoming is accomplished, namely, by the grace of and faith in God. Such meaning is clearly indicated by another passage from the selfsame apostle: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you." Without such aid even Jesus could do nothing.          Encouraging people in the belief that they can go on in a sinful state expecting to be saved by the sacrificial death of Jesus, is not warranted by the Scriptures, nor by the critic's own experience. Jesus' so-called death occurred nearly two thousand years ago, but by the critic's own admission his death did not save the critic from sin, disease, crime, or drunkenness. It was overcoming that did it. "Faith without works is dead," said James, and so-called works which do not overcome are equally so; for that sin, and the suffering it occasions, will continue until overcome, is too plain for argument, and the supposition that a vicarious sacrifice will save without overcoming is one of the worst delusions that dogmatic theology ever visited upon a people. Therefore, Mrs. Eddy, having an unbounded love for humanity, without fear or favor, revealed the truth and declared: "Do you ask wisdom to be merciful and not to punish sin? Then 'ye ask amiss.' Without punishment, sin would multiply. . . . Truth bestows no pardon upon error, but wipes it out in the most effectual manner. Jesus suffered for our sins, not to annul the divine sentence for an individual's sin, but because sin brings inevitable suffering." "The so-called sinner is a suicide. Sin kills the sinner and will continue to kill him so long as he sins." (Science and Health, pp. 10, 203.) Hence Jesus' reference to the second death quoted above, signifying that death is by no means an end to the problem.   Excerpted from "Selected Articles" Christian Science Sentinel, November 22, 1919

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