Article March 13, 1937 Issue

Master, or Servant?

ALBERT F. GILMORE

In that masterpiece of Pauline exposition, the sixth chapter of Romans, the Apostle to the Gentiles sets forth a proposition which, when fully grasped, is of first importance to humanity. Its purport is nothing less than this: that obedience to the demands of the flesh, that is, to the material senses, leads to unhappiness, even to death; while obedience to divine law, to the commands of God, leads to righteousness and prosperity, even to eternal life. Surely, no message could be of greater importance to mankind. These are Paul's words: "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" And righteousness spiritually discerned is the way of Life.

The situation could scarcely be set forth more clearly. And it is for each to make the choice for himself. What path shall we take? Which way shall we go? Along the ways of sin, which may please the senses, yet end in death; or along the ways of righteousness, which brings forth "fruit unto holiness," lasting joy, and the true understanding of Life? There can be no doubt as to the better, the wiser, course. How to choose the right way and to remain in it is, then, the problem confronting every mortal who is seeking liberation from the enslaving senses, the materiality into which mortals are born, and from which escape must be made in order to win the freedom which belongs to the children of God.

The problem briefly is this: How can mortals free themselves from the slavery of the material senses, in order to gain the dominion which God has bestowed upon immortal man, and which, therefore, is his by divine mandate? Christian Science both asserts the spiritual man's freedom from all evil, as his primal condition, and points the way to the demonstration of that freedom, not at some future, far-off time and in some other place, that is, in some suppositional kingdom of heaven, but here and now in the experience called mortal existence. Mrs. Eddy says, in unmistakable terms, that man, the real man, now possesses this freedom, and that through spiritual ascendancy, mastery of the material senses, we may gain this freedom now. On page 3 of "Pulpit and Press" we read, "Know, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly." And the ability to think rightly, being a sovereign power, that is, an authoritative ability, empowers one to act rightly. Thinking rightly assures right action because it reveals man's relation to his divine source and God's government of man.

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