From the time our great Master uttered those wonderful words to his disciples, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," there has been before the world a promise unequaled in its appeal to all hearts. Throughout the ages the most cherished ideal of every nation has been freedom, an ideal differing in accordance with what the world in its varying degrees of civilization has considered freedom to be; and many and bitter have been the struggles to attain it, and many the sacrifices endured in bearing aloft its standard. Nevertheless, each unit of those many nations, conquered and conqueror alike, has been more or less enslaved by the cruel laws of material belief, the so-called laws of heredity and sickness, of sin and death, resulting in needless suffering.

How reassuring, then, in its simplicity is this statement of Christ Jesus, the Way-shower to all mankind, and how comprehensive is the promise contained therein and how certain of fulfillment! Yet, in spite of this, men have remained in bondage to the belief that matter has power, is sentient, and possesses life and substance, until through the spiritual vision of Mary Baker Eddy and her understanding of the Master's teachings, the way of attainment to perfect freedom was discovered and proved, and given by her in the textbook of Christian Science, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."

To the generality of men, until the establishment of Christian Science, the comforting promises of the Bible have appeared impossible of realization or of application to present-day conditions; and they have been even as prisoners behind a locked door, a door bolted and barred with the dense beliefs of material sense, beyond which are liberty and joy: spiritual man's goodly heritage. Christian Science has unlocked the closed door which now swings wide, so that, through spiritual understanding, all who will may pass through it into the promised land, and "go in and out, and find pasture." Its teachings remove the dark veil of materiality, and we too can now behold something of that worldwide freedom which our Leader saw so clearly, and of which she has written on page 226 of Science and Health, "The voice of God in behalf of the African slave was still echoing in our land, when the voice of the herald of this new crusade sounded the keynote of universal freedom, asking a fuller acknowledgment of the rights of man as a Son of God, demanding that the fetters of sin, sickness, and death be stricken from the human mind and that its freedom be won, not through human warfare, not with bayonet and blood, but through Christ's divine Science."

When we glimpse something of the tremendous import of the Saviour's promise, we may feel a sense of disappointment that the expected freedom does not always seem so easy of attainment in its fullness as we had anticipated in the first joyful moments of release from some enslaving error. What, then, is the reason for the delay? May it not be that we stand on the threshold gazing with longing eyes at the glorious prospect that has opened before us, but not fully realizing that it is for us to step forward through the open door into the sunshine of God's love, and actively prove our God-given heritage as "heirs of God, and jointheirs with Christ"? Mankind has for so long accepted the dictum of the belief of subjection to a material body that it allows itself to be hampered in its attempt to go forward. We need to realize that now, in this glorious present, we are indeed free.

But there is a condition attached to the promise. We read: "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. ... If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." As Christian Scientists we know that to be followers of Christ, Truth, we must forsake every desire that does not conform to the requirements of divine Principle; for only as we exclude wrong thinking, and follow the Master "in deed and in truth," can we truly be his disciples. Only so can we gain freedom in its entirety and demonstrate spiritual dominion. Knowing that divine Love asks of us nothing impossible of fulfillment, we can meet every demand of Truth with joy and gratitude; and on each one of us rests the responsibility of proving our true discipleship by our works. Thus we see that only as we are obedient to its demands can the fulfillment of the Master's promise be individually experienced, that only as we realize and prove our birthright can we attain to the dominion of the sons of God.

And what of those who have yet to find their way to this most gracious truth? The promise stands for all the world! All who will may share in "the glorious liberty of the children of God," as individually free, yet united in the mighty bond of brotherhood, the bond of love which is the reflection of divine Love. On page 200 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" Mrs. Eddy writes: "The chain of Christian unity, unbroken, stretches across the sea and rises upward to the realms of incorporeal Life—even to the glorious beatitudes of divine Love. Striving to be good, to do good, and to love our neighbor as ourself, man's soul is safe; man emerges from mortality and receives his rights inalienable—the love of God and man."

May we who have been led to the open door, and have passed from the chill prison house of mortal beliefs into the warmth of the understanding of ever present divine Love, so order our lives that our brethren of all nations shall be drawn to behold the same vision; that they shall hear and understand the words of our Master, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Let us, then, obey the divine injunction, spoken by the prophet Isaiah, "to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke." So doing, we shall find the kingdom of God, which, as Christ Jesus said, "is within you."

Copyright, 1929, by The Christian Science Publishing Society, Falmouth and St. Paul Streets, Boston, Massachusetts. Entered at Boston post office as second-class matter. Acceptance for mailing at a special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 11, 1918.