Article May 8, 1920 Issue

Independence

GUY H. DEMPSTER

In view of the fact that the world has arrived at a stage when as never before independence is being sought after by the individual, the classes, the nations, the thinkers, it is very essential that the true meaning of that state should be understood in order that the pitfalls laid by human sense whenever its claims are threatened by a right idea, may be seen, avoided, and eventually destroyed. How many times in human history has a good purpose become dim, until the cry, "What crimes are committed in thy name," goes up from those who were looking to human sense for permanent liberty. The disappointment is inevitable, as mortal sense cannot free itself from its self-imposed fetters. Uncontrolled by Principle, endeavors toward attaining independence soon acquire the characteristics of the counterfeit in dependence on will power, which ends in abject slavery or in disregard for law and order, leading to "chaos and old night."

Mankind may take hope, however, for the new light is dawning and, as Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (Preface, p. vii), "The time for thinkers has come." Christian Science, that "way of holiness," in which "the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err," guides thought on this as on all other human problems, in the right direction toward the realization of the spiritual fact, in which the only true solution is to be found.

Independence means, of course, freedom from external control. Man has this freedom because, as the Scriptures tell us, he was given dominion, or, as Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 227), "God made man free." This true man, made in God's image and reflecting the independence of Principle, is dependent alone on his creator, Mind. Such dependence on God is logically essential, for to be independent of God, Life, would mean the oblivion of death; to be independent of Mind, the vacuity of unintelligence. Man thinks independently because he is the individual idea of Mind, and because he thus expresses individual intelligence. He cannot therefore be controlled by any influence external to Mind and idea. This does not mean that one's thoughts will be antagonistic to those of his fellow men. On the contrary, the spiritual fact that the true man expresses one Mind insures harmonious cooperation among right thinkers.

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