Editorial February 14, 1925 Issue

Freedom from Burdens

Ella W. Hoag

All the world is longing for freedom. It is calling out for deliverance from the burdens which seem to beset human existence. All sorts of methods have been devised to bring about this freedom; indeed, a large proportion of the efforts and inventions of the so-called human mind have had in view the lifting of the burdens from mankind which so often have seemed too heavy to be borne.

Men, however, have generally admitted that their most earnest efforts after this freedom have been sadly lacking in satisfactory results, such efforts sometimes apparently only plunging them into deeper dilemma and distress. Even those who have tried to obey Jesus' injunction, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden. . . . For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light," have, because of not understanding how to obey, often fallen short of winning the rest and freedom which Jesus had promised them.

One reason for the burdens of mortals is that they have been almost universally obsessed with the belief in false responsibility. When the serpent first told Adam and Eve that if they would disobey God they would themselves be as gods, when the outrageous, egotistical lie of existence and mind independent of and separate from God was thus presented, the belief in mistaken responsibility claimed to become a part of human consciousness. From that time to this, human history has largely been made up of the efforts of mankind to govern everything.

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