Article October 3, 1908 Issue

LOVE THE LIBERATOR

JOHN E. FELLERS.

On page 225 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says, "Love is the liberator." This is a plain, unqualified, declarative statement from one and by one who knows, and it is made to a suffering race that needs to know; but there are two facts suggested by this short statement of four words, which until recently had escaped my attention. First: "Love is the liberator;" not has been or will be, but is. Second: Love is not one of the liberators, nor a liberator, but the liberator. Jesus expressed the same general thought when he said to his disciples, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free;" but the fact that "Love is the liberator" and that the truth makes free, standing alone as a fact, is not enough. We must know that Love is creative, active, alterative, operative, reformative, corrective, regenerative, redemptive, constructive, illuminative, imperative, positive; then indeed is "Love the liberator." In like manner the truth makes us free when we know the truth.

A few years ago a large elephant was brought to the zoological gardens in one of our eastern cities. He had but recently been reclaimed from the forest and his natural wildness and shyness indicated to the keepers of the garden that he should not at once be given the full freedom of the park. Accordingly he was kept in chains for a number of years, very much longer, in fact, than was necessary, because elephants are usually very intelligent and are easily domesticated; but the animal's bondage was perpetuated either by the neglect or the thoughtlessness of the keepers, the limit of his abode being the circumference of the circle in which he lived from year to year. Finally the keepers concluded to set him free. They took off his chains, but to their surprise they could not lead, coax, nor drive him out of that circle. The habit of monotonous confinement to that limited abode had become so strong that when his keepers urged him beyond his old limitations, he would stand, with apparently sullen defiance, swinging his heavy head back and forth as if in mute protest. He had accepted the conditions and limitations for years, and was satisfied with them; he did not care for larger fields. In fact he did not know that at last the keepers were his friends and were now desirous of giving him wider range. Neither did he know that he was free, and not knowing this fact, he was as truly bound as before his chains had been taken off.

The manifest stupidity of the elephant may provoke a smile, but can we say with assurance that we fully appreciate and realize the freedom which Christian Science has brought to us from the habits that have limited our lives and opportunities throughout our brief years? Do we not often seem to be standing still in a sort of sullen submission, ignorant of our freedom until we have exercised what we already have? Do we realize that, having a part, the whole must be somewhere, and that some time we must account for the unused talent? The gleams of understanding we now have hint strongly to us the greatness and fulness of the Love that liberates, just as the minutest parts of the house in which we live give intimations of the wealth of mine and forest from which they were taken. Are we seeking as we should the liberty which was promised by Christ Jesus, and which may be demonstrated today through the teaching of Christian Science?

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