Article April 19, 1919 Issue

"The glorious liberty"

ANNE CLEVELAND CHENEY

The three progressive experiences of Peter in prison and his conduct after liberation therefrom typify, with marvelous fullness and exactness, the spiritual stages by which so many of us, following steadfastly though slowly beyond the bars of mere material existence, have come out, under the leadership of divine Science, into "a large place," where we at least glimpse "the glorious liberty of the children of God."

First there came the summons. Bound by heavy fetters as Peter was, guarded closely by armed soldiers within seemingly impassable walls, nevertheless "the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands." We, too, lay shackled by the senses, closely guarded by well-armed dogma, watchful prejudice, autocratic intellectuality, or inert ignorance, until some culminating experience smote us and made us aware that shades of the prison house had indeed closed round. It may have been some disease pronounced incurable, or the initial payment of sin's wages, or a desolating grief or sweeping loss of all material treasure, which brought us to the realization that a life sentence in one case, or a death sentence in another, had been passed upon us. Then a light shined in our prison and a voice bade us rise up quickly and follow. Words which had become mere memory rang with clear summoning promise for us here and now: "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

Mrs. Eddy, for whom the light of Life was kindled to the radiance of revelation, has said, "Angels are pure thoughts from God, winged with Truth and Love, no matter what their individualism may be" (Science and Health, p. 298). Whether the angel that bore to us the truth came in the form of a familiar friend or a stranger, rather than as a winged, effulgent presence, it was one bringing as sure a message from God, uttered clearly through divine Science; and at the first sign of our heeding we felt some of the chains of sense give way; we had learned at least to pray more understandingly, and therefore more trustingly.

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