Article September 27, 1919 Issue

Freedom

L. EMMETT SHERRED

THAT the thought of the world is undergoing a change is daily and hourly becoming more apparent to even the most casual observer, and that this change is being manifested in ways some of them good and others not so good is also clearly evident to one who is willing to analyze the reports as they appear day by day. Much mental turmoil is being manifested, some of it in strikes and threatened strikes because of real or fancied restrictions of the rights of the while capital protests against the exactions of labor; and thus it may seem that the very foundations foundations of society are being torn as a result of the pull of the contending forces.

To one whose thought is founded on the rock of spiritual understanding, these indications of unrest are far from disquieting. They are but signs of the times, to be studied, certainly, but in no way to be taken as indicative of the breaking up of organized society; indeed, evidence exaclty to the contrary may be found in the fact that never before in the history of the world has the operation of the law of Principle been so freely conceded by the leaders of thought among the nations as at the present moment. On page 227 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says, "Citizens of the world, accept the 'glorious liberty of the children of God,' and be free!" This pregnant statement loses nothing by many repetitions, but emphasizes the fact that our Leader, with prophetic insight, realized that the time was rapidly approaching when God, Principle, would have to be taken into account not only in the affairs of the church but in the family, in society, and in the state.

Since the dawn of history, whenever expression has been possible, freedom has been the desire of all mankind, and there is no good reason to suppose that such a desire was not concurrent with the lives of the most primitive of men. It is not an unreasonable assertion that the desire for unrestrained physical action, common to all, is but a material counterfeit of that desire for freedom which is implanted in each one of God's children. A striving for the continuous unfoldment of freedom has been one of the most effective causes operating for the uplifting of the human race. Freedom of action, in its lowest form, is expressed by physical movement, and the instantaneous attempt to free one's self from any so-called bodily restraint is but typical of the demand which the socalled mind for freedom in the expression of its thought. Is it not a truism, therefore, to say that freedom is an elemental idea which is the heritage of all, from its least forms to its highest mental expression?

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