THERE are in the Christian world to-day many workers to whom has come with great clarity a vision of the necessity of loving and serving their neighbors, but who are still in darkness as to the need of performing properly this function for themselves. They hesitate to give time and thought to their own specific needs, and feel that such a course would rightly be characterized as selfish and self-centered.
In one short sentence, recorded by the beloved John, Christ Jesus sweeps away the whole of this fallacious argument with the words, "For their sakes I sanctify myself." Here is made plain both the motive for, and the ultimate of, self-sanctification— "for their sakes;" and when thought is held firmly to this ideal, the working out of one's own salvation is enlarged and glorified to include universal humanity; and thus are self-sanctification and compassionate helpfulness seen to go logically hand in hand.
The desire of every Christian Scientist is to be a transparency for Truth, and each knows that only in proportion as the darkness in himself is cast out can he in any wise reflect light to others. How often, when called upon to perform a necessary task, one is confronted by some unconquered weakness in his own thought, such as fear, limitation, mistrust of ability, or the like, which would if possible rob him of the joy of achievement. Such mental robbers can be eliminated and destroyed only though self-sanctification, leaving the man of Truth ready and able to perform God's work.
