"WHAT must I do to be saved?" This question is as momentous to-day as ever it was, because the desire for peace and blessedness is common to all humanity. The desire cannot be anything other than the longing for the answer to this question. But mankind forgets that it has already been answered in the words of Paul to the keeper of the prison at Philippi: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." What did Paul mean? Surely, that we should study the teachings revealed and proved to us by Christ Jesus, and emulate his example. And what advice did Jesus himself give to those who, inspired with this same desire, were impelled to follow him? It was, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." The worldly-minded mortal views this demand skeptically. He does not easily comprehend that permanent peace and perpetual blessedness can be gained by keeping the Ten Commandments, which Jesus said were included in the two: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind;" and, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Were such a one to open the Bible, he would find that the experiences of the children of Israel corroborate fully and entirely the truth and necessity of this demand.
Moses desired his people to worship God. In order to do this properly, it was necessary for them to learn to understand God better, and to give up their mistaken concepts of God and His creation. A larger understanding of God must surely produce a change in their manner of thinking; and this could not be without its influence on their acting. It can easily be recognized that improved thought and the corresponding improved action would prove to be a means of peace and blessedness for them. In fact, we perceive that whenever the people clung to a false way of thinking and acting, they had to pay for it with the loss of their peace. The Commandments were to be a guide for their spiritual development during their wandering.
Time has not altered the fact that, to-day, so-called mortal mind is still trying to separate mankind from true blessedness. This supposititious mind still claims to hold mankind in captivity to darkened and wrong concepts of God and all that really is. The desire to be saved is common to all; but human concepts concerning the state of blessedness are so dark and confused, it is no wonder that courses not leading to the true goal are often pursued. All will agree that for such the state of blessedness means deliverance from fear, sorrow, and sickness; and that it must include permanent peace and harmony. The materially-minded consider the attainment of such a condition impossible, because they cannot see beyond the material. Others, having recognized the inability of matter in this respect, are quite correct when they declare that true happiness can be gained only in heaven. But then they make the mistake of limiting heaven to a locality reached only by passing through the door of death. Mortal mind, with its false beliefs, claims to keep Truth hidden, and it must be dethroned by recognizing its unreality—unreality which will be visible in proportion as mankind gains the knowledge of reality.
