ALTHOUGH Jesus commanded his follower to preach the gospel, Christianity is initially a subjective dispensation. Its fundamental purpose is to furnish the individual with the means of deliverance from evil and of compassing the kingdom of heaven here and now.
This purpose does not imply that Christians are too preoccupied with working out their own salvation to spare a thought for others. On the contrary, rightly understood, Christianity engenders in them a great desire to share the blessings which they have received. When understood scientifically, it kindles in them a deep love for all and a recognition that each one is an individual expression of the one infinite Mind, God, and is embraced in that Mind, however ignorant he may yet be of the facts of being. We read in Psalms (49:20), "Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish." Christianity is the light shining in the darkness of human ignorance and misconception which it dispels with its own radiance.
This dispelling is effected primarily through the unfolding knowledge of the truth of being in the individual's consciousness and through the purification of his heart from the many phases of the carnal mind hidden in the folds of self-ignorance. Jesus insisted (Matt. 7:5),"First cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."
