Editorial December 28, 1929 Issue

The Right to Freedom

Duncan Sinclair

How many in the world to-day are living in bondage to the belief that their case is hopeless—that the sin which has beset them, perhaps for years, will never be overcome; that the sickness which has sapped their energies, maybe over a prolonged period, will never be healed; that the evil influence exercised over their lives by the misdeeds of others will never be lifted! Many are enduring lives which are distressed and oftentimes painful, sinful and oftentimes sorrowful, and they have not the faintest notion as to how to obtain their freedom. They have been reared in the traditional material beliefs of the world, and they are enduring, often indeed with stoic heroism, what the world believes to be inevitable.

Now there is something far wrong with a state of affairs which would condemn anyone to hopeless endurance of any form of evil. It is revolting to think of such a thing. Our sense of justice rebels against it. Our love for mankind pleads for a way out of it. And, thank God, there is a solution, and Christian Science gives it! Our revered Leader, Mrs. Eddy, writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 228): "The enslavement of man is not legitimate. It will cease when man enters into his heritage of freedom, his God-given dominion over the material senses." Thus, Christian Science states emphatically that enslavement is wrong, at the same time pointing out the way whereby freedom can be won.

Christian Science makes clear the truth that God is omnipotent; that is, possesses all-power. There is, therefore, no real power the opposite of Himself. And since God is good, there is no evil power. In other words, evil is unreal. As these truths are understood it becomes plain that the sin, suffering, and sorrow of the world are not of God, and therefore are not legitimate. This being so, it is the right of mankind to be entirely free of them. Mrs. Eddy is very emphatic when she speaks of the omnipotence of God. She writes on the page of Science and Health already quoted from: "There is no power apart from God. Omnipotence has all-power, and to acknowledge any other power is to dishonor God." Not only, then, has evil in its every form to be regarded as unreal, but it has to be borne in mind that to acknowledge it as having any power whatever is to dishonor God.

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