Article November 20, 1902 Issue

Freedom without License

R. M. W.

As we pass from a state of mortal mind to a state of spiritual understanding, as revealed in Christian Science, we come to a point where we would fain grasp the new, yet seem unwilling or unable to give up entirely the old, and few of us pass this point at a bound.

In regard to medicine and the laws of hygiene, a complete renunciation of former theories is less difficult, since through the understanding of Christian Science we have proved that sickness is not a necessity, and have found health, the goal toward which these once accepted theories assumed to point the way. To be sure there may come suggestions now and then that medicine or surgery might avail something when the desired result seems not to be reached promptly, but these suggestions are not in themselves pleasant, and the thought of drugs, or the knife, is never all alluring one. Many people, however, first comprehend Christian Science from the standpoint of healing, and because old methods of healing become unsatisfactory and are therefore fully renounced, they sometimes are led to the mistake of believing that there must be a renunciation of all the things that pertain to the old life. This erroneous opinion can hardly be entertained by any who really understand Christian Science or who know in the least what Jesus meant, when he said, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Whereas it is not difficult for us to give up something that had no inherent attraction, as for instance medicine, the transition from the so-called pleasures of sense seems a more serious one to make. An analysis of these pleasures, shows them to be often but a hollow mockery of real enjoyment. Often they spring from a restless desire for constant amusement and excitement, and from social emulation, which can yield no satisfaction, but only a wearisome craving for something more. It is only the renunciation of our false sense of pleasure that we needs must make. All that is good, pure, and uplifting in life is ours to keep, to respect, and to enjoy. Each step forward implies simply a clearer discrimination between the true and the false. All that we have known of truth is retained, there is no occasion for its sacrifice.

Truth demands obedience in all ways. For a parent to be a healer of disease and yet allow his child to be disobedient or wilful, means that he has a very limited conception of what obedience is. The old method of exacting obedience through fear of punishment, is certainly not in accord with the Christ-Truth. The motive that led to the wrong act is not changed because bodily suffering is inflicted. There is no truth involved in an obedience thus obtained, and a great many parents realize this fact. It sometimes happens, however, that in doing away with this erroneous method of securing obedience parents fail to give their children a higher basis from which to act, and so leave them in an unsettled state of mind which results unhappily. Obedience is the demand of Love, and unless the child learns to obey, he cannot become the perfect man or enter into the "measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." We must not renounce obedience, because we have outgrown certain coercive theories for securing it. Christian Science means emancipation, not renunciation. It means freedom from old habits and modes of conduct because these become unsatisfactory. It does not mean the giving up of anything good or true.

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