Article June 29, 1957 Issue

DECLARATION OF DEPENDENCE

WILLIAM HENRY PAINE

It is interesting to note that the American colonists declared their independence of injustice and oppression "with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence." Leaning heavily on divine wisdom, God, they entertained neither doubt nor fear regarding their ultimate liberation. Establishing dependence primarily on God, rather than independence of seeming discordant conditions, they confidently exercised in their pursuit of happiness those inalienable rights of life and liberty with which they were endowed by the creator.

Sole dependence on God inevitably demands that one be completely independent of matter. On page 200 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy asserts, "Life is, always has been, and ever will be independent of matter; for Life is God, and man is the idea of God, not formed materially but spiritually, and not subject to decay and dust." The man of God's creating, as described in the first chapter of Genesis, is and always has been independent of the baseless fabrications of the Adam-dream, depicted in the second chapter. It is then vitally necessary that we first establish dependence on God in order to realize our independence of the theoretical manifestations of mortal mind.

Biblical history records that victory always came to those who relied implicitly on God. Obedience to the First Commandment is a clear acknowledgment of dependence on none other than the "one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" (Eph. 4:6). In the thirteenth chapter of II Chronicles we learn that Abijah, the king of Judah, unquestionably proved the value of such obedience. Faced with odds of two to one as he stood on the mountainside observing Jeroboam, the king of Israel, deploying his eight hundred thousand "mighty men of valour," Abijah pleaded with the disobedient Israelites not to fight against the Lord God.

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