FREEDOM FROM SENSE-THRALDOM

MARIE F. SMALLEY.

Paul said, "The carnal mind is enmity against God," and this fleshly mind is manifested in the pleasures and pains of sense. In this dream of life in matter our enjoyment and suffering are largely contributed by the senses; thus one who is bound in this dream-slavery vacillates between a state of joy and the depths of misery—the permanent peace which Christ Jesus promised is unknown to him.

It may seem to us that this carnal mind is productive of good when all is going as we would have it, and we are enjoying life, as we say; but when as a later development appear disappointment, weariness, misfortune, or some other evil, we at last perceive, when we have suffered sufficiently, that what does not result in good cannot be good. Then, having tried in vain by various means to throw off our shackles, and looking merely for freedom from present ills, we turn to Christian Science. We learn in the Science of being, through the channel of Mrs. Eddy's irresistible logic and irrefutable proof, that God is good and All-in-all, the one Mind, and not the fountain at the same time of bitter waters and sweet, and we begin to realize the unreality of sense testimony and are healed.

When we experience pain or any seeming inharmony through these senses, under the authority of Science we reach out eagerly for freedom, eradicate the discomfort by knowing the unreliability of the corporeal senses, and affirming their falsity in view of the facts of being; but on the other hand, when our dream-life is flowing along like a song, and we for the moment are reveling in the fleeting pleasures of matter and the erstwhile welcome sense testimony does the thought come to us just as quickly to blot out this sweet sensation, to free ourselves from sense bondage, declare the pleasure unreal because manifestly not of Spirit, God? No! emphatically no!

We all want the good, because it is pleasant and brings peace and harmony; and that is a right desire, for harmony is the law of being, natural and right, and we are told that we need not look beyond the skies for heaven (harmony), since it lies within and around us, and nothing but what is pure and fair and beautiful can enter there; but we must have constantly before our minds that only in the allness of Spirit is there good, and that not only is the evil in matter unreal, but that there is also absolutely no good in matter. The thought for realization is not so much that there is no pain, as that there is no substance in matter; God, Spirit, is absolutely All-in-all, omnipresent, infinite; and clearly there can be nothing outside or beyond Him.

It is only by holding in consciousness the fact of being that we can be entirely free and secure from the aftermath of bitterness which surely comes from worshiping the seeming pleasures of sense as gods many. We must yield absolute allegiance to the one Mind, Spirit. We must apply to Principle not only in time of suffering, but constantly "stand porter at the door of thought" (Science and Health, p. 392), and watch even more when the senses give their deceivingly pleasant testimony, for it is only by being wholly faithful and obedient that the fulness of Life in all its completeness and satisfying perfection can be attained.

As the leaf and blossom unfold under the warmth of the sun, so the warmth of divine Love, flooding our consciousness, brings forth the fruit of Spirit, which is "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance;" but we must remember that these are not the fruit of the carnal mind.

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