The sacrifices that are essential to the highest human good represent a high degree of selflessness. Today's beneficiaries of the Christian way of life are challenged to make whatever sacrifices are necessary to lift the human concept of existence above the level of materialism that Christianity may fulfill its spiritual mission.
An old adage declares, "The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church." The Greek word translated "martyr" means "witness." Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 37): "Martyrs are the human links which connect one stage with another in the history of religion. They are earth's luminaries, which serve to cleanse and rarefy the atmosphere of material sense and to permeate humanity with purer ideals."
Many sacrifices of a false sense of self on the part of Christian Scientists will be needed in this warfare with the aggressive claim of a power opposed to God, good. "Wisdom and Love may require many sacrifices of self to save us from sin," Mrs. Eddy tells us (ibid., p. 23). "One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires constant self-immolation on the sinner's part."
