He who wrote, "Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,— these three alone lead life to sovereign power," is universally regarded as both a sage and a poet. Nevertheless, apart from a discriminating sense of selfhood, the effort to profit by this aphorism is quite sure to lead to confusion and discouragement. The sense of self which is entertained by the many is often found to be altogether too ignoble and contradictory to merit respect, much less reverence; while the effort to better it, unaided by spiritual discernment, has precipitated more heartache and pessimism than any other ethical undertaking, perchance, in the whole field of aspiration.
The analysis of human impulses reveals the fact that the stimulus of the great majority of them is regard for some personal satisfaction, for the interests of a material sense of selfhood. True, one not infrequently comes upon the exhibition of a splendid unselfishness, a readiness to venture even the greatest possible hazard for the benefit of others. The promptness with which men will volunteer to imperil their lives in the effort to rescue a mine-entombed or shipwrecked mate, speaks for the existence of latent nobility even in natures which may seem to be rough and coarse. Nevertheless, experience compels one to concede that unspiritual desire, the assertion of a material self, is. the dominating factor of the great bulk of everyday motives, and it is seen that we can never hope to acquire a genuine self-respect until we have escaped from ignobility, until we have gained at least the vision of a wholly spiritual self. It is just here that in teaching the unmarred ideality of God's offspring, forever "unfallen, upright, pure, and free" (Science and Health, p. 171), Christian Science affirms the divine origin of man, illumines the way of moral advance, and makes practically possible that true self-identification and that putting off of "the old man," the embodiment of false personality, to which all would-be followers of Christ Jesus are imperatively called. Generally speaking, men are tempted to excuse what they should frankly condemn in their own conduct, by averring that they are what they are as the result of no choice or fault of their own. Having been taught to think of man as a composite of flesh and spirit, of good and evil, they quite logically reach the conclusion that this is a normal order for which they cannot be held responsible; and this conscious or unconscious habit of accounting for selfish and sensual impulses explains, no doubt, much of that spiritual stagnation which is so constantly deplored by Christian leaders and teachers to-day. So long as ignoble instincts are thought of as pertaining to the man of God's creation, so long will their elimination be logically regarded as both visionary and impossible. When, however, one begins to know "no man after the flesh," to realize that the only true selfhood is godlike and glorious; then every least lapse from the ideal is seen to be apart from the real man, and delight "in the law of the Lord" takes on an entirely new meaning.
It becomes clear, therefore, that it would be quite impossible to overstate the significance of this question of self-identification to the solution of our daily problems, and to the attainment of the Christ-life. St. John's words, "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil," become inspiringly intelligible the moment we clearly perceive and wholly accept the teaching that man as God's idea is like God, his origin and continuous support, and that the common, unideal sense of selfhood has no place in right consciousness, and therefore can be put away. Further, the conviction immediately springs up that this consummation would solve the human problem; that to know this truth in all its fullness would make all free, even as the Master said, and this is at the very heart of Mrs. Eddy's teaching. It is a radiation of the light of Truth revealed as Christian Science.
