Around the world there is a lot of talk these days about free enterprise. Like the word "democracy," it is an expression that has many interpretations and shades of meaning for various groups and peoples. To the banker or industrialist, working for freedom of action and security for capital entrusted to him, it means one thing. To the farmer, dependent on the soil and on market conditions for his livelihood, it means another. To the labor union member, seeking security, freedom of opportunity, and a higher standard of living for his family, free enterprise means something different. And to those who live in countries where there are not even generally understood words for such things as democracy and free enterprise, their meaning must indeed be hazy and confused.

Yet more than nineteen centuries ago a humble carpenter on the shores of the Galilean sea challenged the tyranny and despotism of that day with a simple plan for human relationships that will, when fully accepted, revolutionize the whole world. The publicans and Pharisees of that day had only an inkling of how the teachings of Christ Jesus were striking at the heart of despotic and greedy special interests and exposing the pride and power of self-righteous and sensual creeds. In that day, and through the centuries, Jesus' teachings have been a foundation on which mankind has been building improved human relationships, a more intelligent economy, a better way of living.

In the New Testament there are frequent references to freedom which show that it was a fundamental of Christ Jesus' teachings. The sick were loosed from their infirmities, the sinning freed from their evil-doing, the imprisoned delivered from their bondage.

John records that Jesus said to his followers (John 8:32), "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Declaring that they were not in bondage, they asked Jesus to explain why he had said, "Ye shall be made free." He replied in simple, direct language that anyone who committed sin was not actually free at all but the "servant of sin," adding those assuring words of promise (verse 36): "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." Thus freedom, real freedom, is not something which men can give or take away, can enjoy in one kind of human economy and not in another, or have in one part of the world and not in another.

The experiences of one student of Christian Science in gaining from this verse of Scripture a better understanding of free enterprise and how this understanding proved helpful in his everyday living may be useful to others. He was employed where he appeared to be hemmed in and imprisoned by limitations. Unnecessary restrictions hampered his work and seemed to crush individual thinking and initiative, both in his own activity and in that of his fellow workers. These restrictions argued so aggressively that they not only made him unhappy and restless for a change in employment, but actually disturbed his physical well-being as well.

In his extremity he realized that Christian Science could bring complete freedom in his work and could restore him mentally and physically, if only he would turn earnestly and wholeheartedly to its study and application. Because a better understanding of free enterprise seemed necessary to the solution of his problem, he studied Jesus' words just quoted and then made the significant discovery that this verse in John's Gospel, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," is the very first verse of Scripture quoted on the page preceding the Table of Contents of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy.

As he studied Mrs. Eddy's writings he began to realize the great new light which this religion has shed upon the freedom and rights of the individual and how today, as in Jesus' time, the Master's teachings are challenging selfish interests, greed, despotism, and the pride of power, in whatever from they rear their ugly heads. He began to see a new and spiritual significance in freedom and in free enterprise as he studied the chapter on Footsteps of Truth in Science and Health. Speaking of Christian Science as a new crusade, Mrs. Eddy writes as follows in this chapter (p. 226): "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 kevnote 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 Science."

As he studied these words, he began to see that with an understanding of Christian Science one could look upon free enterprise as the Christianly scientific right of the individual to throw off the fetters of mortality and to recognize and exercise the freedom which is God-bestowed on man, the son of God. He saw that free enterprise, in this sense, was more than a political slogan; that it was indeed something he himself could prove and demonstrate by putting into practical daily use the words of Jesus, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." This concept of free enterprise could not be contorted by rival economic ideologies.

Limitations and restrictions which before had fettered his day's work and disturbed him mentally and physically appeared as opportunities to bring enlightenment, freedom, and spiritual buoyancy to fellow workers. Restrictive arguments began to disappear as quickly and easily as dark shadows are dispelled by the coming of light. His own mental stress lifted, and he was soon enjoying a kind of health and happiness he had never known. Thus he found one more practical and convincing proof of the efficacy of Christian Science in daily living.

In thinking about the right concept of free enterprise as applied to everyday human affairs, he found it helpful to recall the significant words of Theodore Parker, theologian and scholar, made in a speech at the New England Anti-Slavery Convention in Boston in 1850: "A democracy,—that is a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government of the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God; for shortness' sake I will call it the idea of Freedom."

The idea of freedom, freedom from fear, freedom from limitation, freedom from sin, freedom from disease and death, is fundamental to the teachings of Jesus. Through our understanding of Christian Science we have ever available to us the unchanging law of God, the right application of which turns the sinner from evil, heals the sick, and raises the dead. To the extent of our own demonstration of such scientific freedom, to that extent we attain the goal.

The promise of this goal is outlined very clearly by Mrs. Eddy on pages 9 and 10 of her Message to The Mother Church for 1901: "He of God's household who loveth and liveth most the things of Spirit, receiveth them most; he speaketh wisely, for the spirit of his Father speaketh through him; he worketh well and healeth quickly, for the spirit giveth him liberty: 'Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'"