Article February 8, 1969 Issue

Mastering the Infinite Idea

ELOISE PATTILLO HENDRICK

What is the greatest limitation to mankind's freedom and advancement? Isn't it the tendency to attribute obstacles and bondage to some external cause—environment, lack of opportunity, general economic conditions, despotic governments, heredity, and so on? Yet actually bondage is self-imposed, and when one is so enlightened as to discern that his true selfhood is the expression of God, he is able to progress out of limitations.

The understanding of man as the spiritual expression of God is the dark side of the moon to many people. Superstition, man-made theories, and wrong education perpetuate the notion that man is a mortal, the highest species of animal. Accepting these theories unquestioningly or helplessly, mankind have continued to act within the limits of their belief.

It is not necessary for anyone to be limited by false beliefs about the nature of God and man. Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health, "The admission to one's self that man is God's own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea." ^{Science and Health, p. 90;}