Celebrating our glorious liberty
Each day can be an opportunity to experience what the Bible calls “the glorious liberty of the children of God.”
This year the United States is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which famously proclaims, “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.” Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, considered the struggle for human liberty in the American Revolution, and the struggle decades later against human slavery in the American Civil War, to be precursors to the struggle that God gave her to lead after she had discovered the Science of Christianity. In June of 1888, addressing the National Convention of her students, Mrs. Eddy declared: “Christian Science and the senses are at war. It is a revolutionary struggle. We already have had two in this nation; and they began and ended in a contest for the true idea, for human liberty and rights. Now cometh a third struggle; for the freedom of health, holiness, and the attainment of heaven” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 101).
Along with the ascending scope of the previous two struggles, this third struggle would be for a wider freedom, not simply for the people of one nation, but for all people for all time. Mrs. Eddy writes at length about this universal freedom which is God-given, and therefore at hand for all right now. This freedom includes the expression of health, harmony, sufficiency, and the ability to think and act rightly. And this freedom is inherent in Christ Jesus’ teachings and healings. What can appear to be a struggle—sometimes an intense one—is to let binding tendencies of what the Bible calls “the carnal mind,” and correlatively what Mrs. Eddy calls “mortal mind,” be uprooted “through the action of the divine Mind” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 225). Regardless of our circumstances, as we acknowledge and accept our God-given freedom, we tangibly experience it step by step in our lives and can support others in experiencing it.
This wider freedom is not simply for the people of one nation but for all people for all time.
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