LIVES of outstanding men and women, as recorded in history and biography, are frequently characterized by self-denial. Great religious leaders, statesmen, and philanthropists have often subordinated personal aims and desires to the accomplishment of some worthy purpose or ideal. And human opinion has been accustomed to regard such subordination of self as involving great sacrifice, and sometimes even martyrdom.
That self-denial is a requisite to individual progress in Christian Science, our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, repeatedly affirms in her writings. On page 462 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" she says, in reference to the demonstration of healing power, that "self-denial, sincerity, Christianity, and persistence alone win the prize, as they usually do in every department of life." However, an analysis of the term "self-denial," in the light which Christian Science throws upon the real selfhood of man, as the image and likeness of God, eliminates any thought of sacrifice or suffering.
In the first place, it is obvious that the only selfhood which we can possibly deny is a false selfhood. We would not and could not deny the manifestation and expression of the true spiritual self that is the reflection of God. Certainly, there is no sacrifice involved in the denial of a falsehood. Moreover, the nature of the false material sense of self is nothing that we would wish to perpetuate. Mrs. Eddy classifies the false sense of self with sin and materiality—recognized foes to man's peace and freedom.
The first step in the process of self-denial is self-knowledge. We must be able to distinguish between the false and the true in ourselves in order successfully to eliminate the error. Thought has to be analyzed to see whether or not it is worthy of a child of God. Any statement that is not true of God is not true of the real man, God's reflection. Hence, any such claim as, I am weary, I am ill, I am offended, I am angry, is the claim of the false sense of self; and it must be denied on this basis.
While we are willing and eager to recognize the falsity of beliefs in sickness or pain, we are sometimes not so ready to acknowledge and abandon beliefs of self-righteousness, resentment, and the like. Indeed, mortals may pride themselves on certain idiosyncracies of character and temperament which they think belong peculiarly to themselves. And they may be loath to part with these, until they see that there is nothing real to be sacrificed, because there is no reality in a personality apart from God's reflection.
One who had been struggling long and hard to heal himself of a feeling of resentment was instantaneously freed by the realization that that which said, I have been wounded and want redress, was not the idea of God, conscious of good only, but was a false sense of selfhood with a false claim. Every scientific denial of error aids in establishing in human thought the truth of being; hence, the constant denial of traits and thoughts which go to make up a false sense of selfhood does not destroy man's individuality, but brings to light his true spiritual selfhood.
In the sixteenth chapter of Matthew, Jesus admonished his disciples to deny self, take up the cross, and follow him, adding, "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." Mrs. Eddy expresses the same thought on page 185 of "Miscellaneous Writings": "Self-renunciation of all that constitutes a so-called material man, and the acknowledgment and achievement of his spiritual identity as the child of God, is Science that opens the very flood-gates of heaven." Every faithful effort to replace sick thoughts with healthy thoughts, hatred with love, impurity with purity, and self—will with the divine will, has its reward in an increased sense of freedom and peace, which are the real man's heritage.
