Freedom is man's God-given right. The people of the thirteen North American colonies discerned this fact, made a Declaration of Independence repudiating any connection with the Mother country, and fought a war to enforce their freedom. It was fitting, indeed inevitable, that a New England woman should discover the spiritually scientific sense of freedom through which men can challenge all the enslaving beliefs of a personal material sense.

In describing her revelation, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes on page 227 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, " "I saw that the law of mortal belief included all error, and that, even as oppressive laws are disputed and mortals are taught their right to freedom, so the claims of the enslaving senses must be denied and superseded." And a little farther on we read: "Christian Science raises the standard of liberty and cries: 'Follow me! Escape from the bondage of sickness, sin, and death!' Jesus marked out the way. Citizens of the world, accept the 'glorious liberty of the children of God,' and be free!"

To claim our freedom from the laws of mortal belief is a full-time task. It means nothing less than a step-by-step change of thought from a material to a spiritual basis and the constant acknowledgment of the supremacy of God's government. All materiality manifested in physical, moral, and social ills originates in the belief in a selfhood apart from God.

In truth, man is spiritual and perfect, the image and likeness of God, as described in the first chapter of Genesis, unchanged by the mist of material sense through which man appears as made of the dust of the ground. When we adhere to these absolute spiritual truths, regardless of what seems to be going on in the realm of material sense, we find the solution of all human problems.

This is in accord with Christ Jesus' statement, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). The Master demonstrated this liberating power on every occasion, until he submitted to the crucifixion in order to prove to mankind the eternality of real being. During his public ministry he healed the sick, fed the multitude, and overcame the limitations of time and space through his God-reflected power.

Christian Science is the Comforter which he promised would come when thought was prepared to receive the full statement of his teachings. The Comforter is generally thought of in connection with physical healing, but this is but one phase of its mission. There is an idea of Truth which, when understood, annuls every suggestion of discord or limitation. Christian Science treatment, or prayer, is the affirmation of these truths and the denial of evil. Such prayer does not attempt to call God's attention to human bondage, but claims man's present freedom.

A first glimpse of the glorious possibilities revealed by this Science may cause us to believe that our freedom has been permanently won. But this is not so. Because of the resistance of an enslaving mortal sense, we must combat every suggestion of a power apart from God until all materiality has been destroyed. As the American colonists fought a long war to enforce the Declaration of Independence, so must we continue to meet and conquer the suggestions of the carnal mind.

A helpful lesson in the power of faithful obedience to a divine demand can be learned from the experience of the children of Israel when they marched around the walled city of Jericho once a day for six days. On the seventh day there was no evidence of the weakening of the stronghold, and on that day they marched around it seven times. The walls fell.

So too when we seem to come to a walled impasse in our journey from sense to Soul, let us never submit to the suggestions of futility and failure. The victory may he closer than it seems, and we only need to continue in faithful obedience to God's demands.

When some wall of error has seemed especially adamant, I have found it helpful to think only of the day's requirements, knowing that evil in any form has no past history or power of continuity. Whether it seems to be repetitious or whether it assumes new forms, it is never anything more than the suggestion of the great red dragon, the one evil. Man's God-given right is freedom, and every obstacle must fall before faithful obedience to that knowledge.

To human sense, life seems to go through different phases. If we are claiming our spiritual freedom, we shall not be lulled into apathy by the periods of surcease or discouraged by the persistence of the claims of evil. Instead, we shall be ever alert to recognize the falsity of the enslaving suggestions of mortal mind, whatever the form in which they present themselves, and claim our God-given freedom.