Man's Right of Dominion

The rights of man and the rights of woman have been the subject of discourse throughout the centuries. Based on beliefs of materiality, no satisfying outcome has resulted, but there is ever the human groping for the freedom which must come with the discovery of the true, inalienable rights of man. In the year 1866, Mary Baker Eddy discovered the laws of Principle, which she elucidated in her book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." She perceived that the Bible contained the effectual solution of the problem of man's divine right of dominion, and her vision was so pure and clear that she discerned the Science of being, the basis of Jesus' miracles or proofs that man as the image and likeness of God has dominion.

The first of the two Biblical accounts of creation in Genesis reiterates the grand statement that God, Spirit, made man in His image and likeness and gave him dominion over all the earth, material beliefs; and the unity of good was pronounced. The second account of creation, the one upon which the world has founded its reasoning, is a history of evil claiming to be man and the universe, and subjection, not dominion, is its theme. Man, idea, the reflection of Spirit, without hindrances or bonds, is the true creation. As the significance of this eternal distinction discovered by Mrs. Eddy is realized, the seeming shackles of limitation or inequality, sickness or ignorance, sensuality or any other belief of pain or pleasure in matter, vanish, and man's dominion of freedom brings health, happiness, security, and bounty. In "The People's Idea of God" (p. 10) Mrs. Eddy says: "Discerning the God-given rights of man, Paul said, 'I was free born.' Justice and truth make man free, injustice and error enslave him. Mental Science alone grasps the standard of liberty, and battles for man's whole rights, divine as well as human. It assures us, of a verity, that mortal beliefs, and not a law of nature, have made men sinning and sick,—that they alone have fettered free limbs, and marred in mind the model of man." Mrs. Eddy thus answers the question of what is the cause of man's seeming bondage; that it is simply the self-imposed beliefs about man, which have no foundation or basis. Jesus, himself, clearly saw the true distinction between right dominion and false dominion; for to Satan's temptation that he would secure for him the control of the earth if he were given allegiance, Jesus made an immediate decision for true dominion by refusing Satan's proposals and declaring the sovereignty of God. Likewise, when suggestions of accident, failure, discouragement, or sickness seem to present themselves to us as truthful arguments, let us cast them out, turning resolutely to the great face that God, Spirit, alone governs man and gives him the dominion of freedom.

The true dominion of man does not come by the Peterlike rashness of determination, nor by will power, which some educational systems of to-day teach, but by quietly maintaining in thought the truth that man, reflecting God's power, has dominion, and this steadfast holding to Principle, no matter what the material senses may seem to be testifying, brings the peace of freedom. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." The reward of the peace of freedom comes now, as in Jesus' time, by the persistent turning to Principle. Nothing is gained by letting a little yearning slip in here and there for the seeming pleasures of the material senses. Only the active alertness and the adhering to the demands of Principle will achieve the victory.