Editorial July 8, 1922 Issue

Freedom from Domination

Ella W. Hoag

One of the most insistent forms of fear in human thought is that it may be controlled or dominated in a way undesirable to itself. A primal claim of self-will is that it must always have its own way, must always do as it pleases,—or, as it is apt to argue, as it thinks best. Consequently, one of the greatest hindrances to spiritualization of thought is this fear that some other will than one's own may attempt to dominate or control. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 208), Mrs. Eddy writes: "Mortals have only to submit to the law of God, come into sympathy with it, and to let His will be done;" and then she asks, "But who is willing to do His will or to let it be done?" And human experience would be compelled to answer: Few, if any, to-day understand how to meet this demand perfectly.

There is, however, no one with a semblance of right purpose who does not desire freedom from personal domination. There is certainly no one with even a slight understanding of what Christian Science teaches, who does not believe that he desires to be God-governed and so freed from the bondage of self-will, either of his own or another's. All are quite willing to admit theoretically with an old writer: "My will, and not thine be done, turned paradise into a desert. 'Not my will, but thine, be done,' turned the desert into a paradise, and made Gethsemane the gate of heaven." But to declare always: Thy will, O God, not mine,—and then put it into practice, means such mental discipline—such overcoming of self—as all do not yet seem to understand how to compass.

In Christian Science we are given the absolute affirmations as to the all-inclusive reality of God's infinite will, and the consequent unreality of any belief in personal will; but to take this truth and allow it to uncover, rebuke, and annul all selfish purposes and desires is a work which demands utmost persistence and consecration. It may be readily seen that it is only as one comes to understand, at least in some degree, what the will of God is, that he is able to distinguish between it and the claims to a will apart. This point won, to go on and fulfill what Mrs. Eddy, in Miscellany (p. 258), calls Mary's "task of glory, to know and to do God's will," becomes the unceasing purpose of the Christian Scientist.

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