Salvation is gained in the ratio that Truth is understood and mortal selfhood is relinquished. The definition of salvation, as given by Mrs. Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 593), is: "Life, Truth, and Love understood and demonstrated as supreme over all; sin, sickness, and death destroyed." We must look away from human methods, human opinions, human approval or disapproval, in order to find it thus, and turn with willing, unobstructed hearts to the recognition of the omnipotence of God and the consequent efficacy of the divine Mind to dispel the inharmony of the carnal or mortal mind. As Christian Scientists we are "a peculiar people,"—as is the case with God's chosen ones in all ages,—because we are taught to build on "the stone which the builders rejected" and to appeal to divine Principle in all the problems requiring solution in our human affairs. Having this "pearl of great price," it behooves us not to trample it underfoot, nor lose it in the mistiness and darkness of human methods, but rather to use it, cherish it, guard it from the enemy of human reasoning, and by the application of the rules given us in the Christian Science textbooks, gain the world's confidence by our own proof that this is indeed the better part.
It is well to remember that it is not only ourselves who are to be considered but the whole world, which is becoming weary of its fruitless efforts in the dark and is hungering and thirsting for something to assuage its sorrows, its conflicts, its ceaseless woes. As we lose sight of material sense and self and gain the larger thought of brotherhood, we shall find ourselves turning with renewedly consecrated effort to the great task of keeping our thoughts pure, so that we may see God clearly and reflect Him through lives which attest obedience to the new covenant. In the order of true democracy, as we keep watch over our own thoughts and endeavor to exclude from them all that is unlike God, we shall be taking the first great necessary step toward fulfilling our duty as citizens of the world. It is a step which has been relegated to the background in the past, but Christian Science is restoring it in the thoughts and lives of men, and it is displacing human opinions and action with that divine impetus which holds human progress in line with God's plan and purpose, which is the way of salvation.
Salvation is attained as man turns toward God. It is lost sight of whenever he turns back to the erroneous beliefs of mortal mind, upon which the world has relied for centuries, but all in vain, only to find that no real progress can be made until man acknowledges God as the only cause. Salvation, or the recognition and demonstration of the all-power of God and the willingness to be obedient to divine Principle, operates according to divine law, which is a law of annihilation to sin and sickness. Only through the application of divine law to human lawlessness is it possible to practice the Golden Rule. This law is as light, and the shadow shapes of wrong thinking meet this light but to disappear into their own nothingness. We can walk in the way of salvation. The débris of centhought above mortal sense testimony and consciously apply the divine law of Life and Love to every problem. This law is eternal, hence ceaseless, and is available to all. Its power is irresistible, displacing the general belief in human reasoning with its constant postponement of good, by the certainty of heaven here and now and of salvation as a condition of Life and not of death.
