Editorial June 30, 1945 Issue

A New Declaration of Independence

John Randall Dunn

An Englishman and an American were discussing the Declaration of Independence, whereby the colonies in the New World severed the ties with their mother country. The American, desiring to avoid acrimonious debate on the question, expressed regret that such an unfortunate situation had ever arisen between brethren of a common tongue and lineage. "But the problem had to be brought to the light and dealt with," replied the Englishman. "That Declaration of Independence was the Briton's traditional protest against tyranny!" Indeed, do not these immortal words of the Declaration record the emotions in every freeman's breast: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"? Speed the day when men and women of every race and tongue can see in this great document their charter of freedom!

In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 106), Mary Baker Eddy writes: "Like our nation, Christian Science has its Declaration of Independence. God has endowed man with inalienable rights, among which are self-government, reason, and conscience. Man is properly self-governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love." The moment one turns to the study of Christian Science, therefore, at that moment a mighty revolution begins in his human experience, a new struggle for independence; a stand for freedom from the tyranny of material laws and limitations, which will usher in a larger measure of health and happiness.

The starting point, with our new declaration of independence, is to hold steadfastly to the truth that man, God's man, being made in the image of his creator, is spiritually mental and therefore is superior to and not at the mercy of matter; in fact, what the world calls matter is, in the light of divine Science, just the faulty, limited conception of the mortal or carnal mind. Thus when one is confronted with the argument of sickness, he is not dealing with a condition of diseased material substance, but with erroneous mental pictures drawn by fear, and ignorance of God and man. Truly can the human consciousness, awakening to the spiritual truth of being, declare its independence of the many tyrannies of materialism. Belonging not to the creation of an all-good God, the beliefs of material sense are negations, lawless, unreal.

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