The desire for freedom is universal. It is a concomitant of the desire for life, and is sought in as many ways as there are concepts of what it is. The only way truly to obtain it is set forth in the words of Christ Jesus, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, in a lucid statement in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," indicates the process of right thinking through the application of spiritual truth, which is available to all. She says (p. 269), "Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul."

His experiences as an aviator during the World War provided a student with many opportunities to prove that "metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul." The lessons thus learned have since been most helpful to him in the solving of difficult problems, both for himself and for others.

One of these experiences, his first flight upward through a heavy layer of clouds, was to him a most impressive one. On the ground, the day was a dark and misty one. Taking off, and pointing the nose of his ship upward, he soon became enveloped in the even more dense and impenetrable mist of the cloud layer itself. Continuing his upward course, however, he suddenly emerged into the beauty and brilliance of a perfectly clear atmosphere. The sun shining undimmed overhead, and underneath, the fleecy white cloud-tops spreading out in all directions like a billowing sea, formed a resplendent scene of grandeur and glory, the more amazing and inspiring because of its sharp contrast with the dark earthscene just left behind. The remarkable sense of freedom inspired by this transition would be hard to describe.

So, when our day seems darkened by the heavy problems that sometimes come rolling over our mental horizon, and the dullness of doubt and discouragement seems to overspread us, cannot our thoughts, soaring upward, penetrate the clouds of sense and emerge in the ever-present sunlight of Truth? This must be a rising above the evidence of the false senses, which would claim that God, good, is not continually with us. All the power of Truth is present to enable us to accomplish this, for, as Mrs. Eddy declares of the healing done in Christian Science (Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 96, 97): "It is Christ come to destroy the power of the flesh; it is Truth over error; that understood, gives man ability to rise above the evidence of the senses, take hold of the eternal energies of Truth, and destroy mortal discord with immortal harmony,—the grand verities of being." Nothing need be done to the clouds, the errors of sense, for to attempt to do something to them would be to try to make that real which is unreal. We must mentally soar above and beyond them into the harmonious realm of spiritual reality, and thus find ourselves free. As our Leader says (ibid., p. 355), "To strike out right and left against the mist, never clears the vision; but to lift your head above it, is a sovereign panacea."

The practical value of such right effort was demonstrated in the healing of one who was suffering intensely from a spinal trouble of long standing. He was instantaneously relieved when it was made plain to him that the malady was but a false sense, and that he could rise above it by lifting his thought, through the power of Truth, to behold the real man, created in God's image and likeness, perfect and whole. The sudden relief from the suffering impelled him to exclaim, "I have never seen anything like this!" much as the aviator might have said upon first seeing the shimmering beauty of the unclouded sky as he emerged from the clouds. This sense of surprise, of the one healed at the sudden manifestation of good, is soon replaced by a serene comprehension and joyous acceptance of the truth, as he progresses in his study and use of Christian Science. Moreover, he rarely fails to marvel at and to be grateful for each new glimpse of the goodness and ever-presence of God obtained through such healings.

The serenity of the working Christian Scientist, his poise and confidence in the face of difficulties, very probably accounts for the opinion sometimes expressed that "Scientists have no troubles to meet." This calmness is not due to their having no troubles to meet, but to the understanding of how to overcome them without being harmed by them. The aviator, of World War days, flying what today would be considered a rather primitive plane, was often buffeted by upward and downward air currents called "bumps." In his training days, while he was learning to fly, these were considered real troubles. But this was only because, at that stage, he did not understand them and would try to combat them by "overcontrolling." As soon, however, as he learned that these "ups and downs" could not interfere with his harmonious flight, as long as he made no undue effort to offset them with the controls, they ceased to be troubles to him. Likewise the Christian Scientist, buffeted by the trials of mortal existence, nullifies their effect upon himself by understanding that Truth is triumphant over the various phases of error. He rises above many material limitations and befogging situations, and moves, more each day, in that mental atmosphere of freedom so beautifully described in this stanza from a beloved hymn: