Article August 4, 1928 Issue

Man is Free

MARTHA H. SQUIRES

On a large cattle ranch among the mountains of California, where there were few fences and one could see acres of broad rolling fields, a large wooden hitching post, which was not in a corral or inclosure of any kind, stood between the house and the barn. It was a common sight to see a cattleman ride up to this post, pull the reins over the horse's head, drop them carelessly over the post on to the ground, and then walk away leaving his horse untied. Sometimes hours would elapse before the rider would return; but the horse, believing he was tied, stood with his nose close to the post, all unaware of his freedom. How like this saddle horse is suffering humanity to-day, bound to its false beliefs, accepting as true sickness, sorrow, poverty, and sin! Mankind's bondage is the result of the training of false education; but it has no law of God to support it. Therefore it is unreal. In reality man is free.

Jesus said to the one who had been bound eighteen years with a disease, "Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity." But her bondage was wholly mental, a state of erroneous thought, and Jesus knew that she needed to be awakened to the fact. He did not say he would break her bonds or change anything; for he knew that she was in reality God's perfect child, and already free. He simply awakened the woman—bound by false belief only—to the realization of her freedom. When she accepted the truth she was loosed—she was healed.

What causes mankind's bondage? and how may freedom be obtained? Christian Science has revealed to many who have accepted its teachings the answer to these questions. In her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 223), Mrs. Eddy has written, "Sooner or later we shall learn that the fetters of man's finite capacity are forged by the illusion that he lives in body instead of in Soul, in matter instead of in Spirit." So one's belief that he is material, that he lives in matter, is the basis of his bondage. An understanding of the truth of man's spiritual identity is the basis of his freedom. Had the woman bound for eighteen years known that her real self was not incased in a body, but that in reality she was wholly mental; that she was the idea of God, and as such was free and unlimited, she could not have suffered from disease or from any other error. Mrs. Eddy has written in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 119), "Man is free from the flesh and is individual in consciousness—in Mind, not in matter."

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