Editorial June 8, 1912 Issue

THE LARGER INDEPENDENCE

John B. Willis

The life of a people should be found at its best on great historic days, and for the reason that they are commemorative of that truth which stands for eternal freedom, and that freedom which stands for eternal Truth. Every "Patriots' day" is sure to bring keen emphasis to our thought of the rights of man, of the struggle for escape from injustice, or imposition, and of the triumphs of world-advancing ideas. Moreover, it exhales that fragrant sense of brotherhood which in crucial moments always proves itself to be heroic, capable of ignoring physical danger as well as the caste and conventionalities which beget social cleavage,—capable of being unselfish to a divine degree.

To the more thoughtful and Christian-minded, these commemorated days open, furthermore, the door to a spirit of great thoughtfulness, gratitude for the men and the deeds in all the past, such as they would like to be and do. They make it easier for us to entertain the broader, nobler view, to cherish the finer purpose, and thus their best influence is always arrayed on the side of human betterment. Indeed one cannot worthily celebrate the bravery of the fathers, their splendid daring and sacrifice, without being lifted at once to a higher plane of living. Thought of human emancipation, and of human possibilities, is enlarged; and if one is truly Christian, he will not fail to gain the strength and peace of knowing that every genuine protest against an unjust human condition is a vote for God and commands His unfailing support. Thus one sees that every wrong, every unideality of human experience, is to find its date of passing in an independence day with whose speedy or tardy approach he has immediately to do, and Mrs. Eddy voices the call of Christian Science to the realization of this vitally essential freedom when she says, "Citizens of the world, accept the 'glorious liberty of the children of God,' and be free! This is your divine right" (Science and Health, p. 227).

In the embrace of this nobler thought of freedom, one may rejoice not only over the righted wrongs of the past, but over his unreserved enlistment in the divine endeavor to right all wrongs, to bring into human consciousness the sublime verity of Love's eternal rule. The largely unrecognized fact of the solidarity of men, their common interests, common handicaps, common sufferings, and common hopes for happiness, comes home to one, and he begins to see that any narrowness or exclusiveness of devotion to what he may think of as his own problem, is out of keeping; that no man can find his own true freedom until he becomes impellingly interested in the freedom of every man and every creature. Said Jesus, "First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift," and we have not obeyed his injunction so long as we remain indifferent to our brother's enslavement to sickness, injustice, or sin. This is the complaint of the many today respecting professed Christians (and in large measure it is quite legitimate); not that they do not give their gold, but that they do not give themselves—they are not brotherly. Brotherliness means practical identification with every man's righteous struggle, and this has come home to Christian Scientists as they have been led to see the oneness of the unnumbered phases of serfdom, as well as the singleness and simplicity of the means of emancipation; that there is but one enemy to be overcome, false belief, and but one weapon for its dethronement, the truth.

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