FROM earliest history men have offered sacrifices to their gods. The Old Testament traces most interestingly the evolution of the practice as developed by the Hebrew race. Whether the sacrifice was a joyous or a propitiatory one, it was always an offering of something deemed valuable. It at least led men to feel that the best they had belonged to God, and that their possession of it was due to His goodness.
Christianity developed sacrifice to a vastly more spiritual plane; and the Christian position is well epitomized by Paul when he says, "I beseech you therefore, . . . that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." From the theological viewpoint of this statement, much selfless service has been rendered to mankind. The thought of dedicating one's human life, one's service,—surely his most valuable possession,—to God is far higher than the earlier and more material concept.
It has remained for Christian Science, however, to present to mankind the purely metaphysical meaning of sacrifice—to interpret in its spiritual sense Paul's instruction. On page 409 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, says, "Mortal mind and body combine as one;" and her students know that it is in this so-called mortal mind that all corporeality, sickness, sorrow, fear, sin, and death are found. If, therefore, we are to present our mortal body as a sacrifice, we must be ready to give up that material sense in which alone the belief of a mortal body exists. If that dream of a corporeal mortal is the source of all our woes, could there be a more logical sacrifice than to give up our belief in it, as a reasonable service to God, who knows only perfect, spiritual man?
