True Independence

Albert F. Gilmore

The story of mankind's struggle for independence is the history of human progress. While there have been certain events standing out like mountain peaks above the plain upon which the sun of spiritual liberty has shone with extraordinary brilliancy, the whole trend of human experience has been steadily upward. The rate of progress of civilization has been exactly commensurate with the degree of spiritual independence won by mankind individually and collectively; for independence in the highest sense is freedom from the bondage of material beliefs, from the limitations of personal sense, gained through the right understanding of God and His perfect universe, including spiritual man. It is the knowledge that man is not and never was subject to material laws and conditions; that man is God's expression and reflection, and is dependent only upon Him of whom Jesus implored, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."

One of the first brilliantly illuminated peaks in mankind's upward journey was mount Sinai, where Moses received the Decalogue written on tablets of stone, a true symbol of its permanency. None will deny that the Ten Commandments, which have come to be known as the moral law, were and always will be essential to human progress. How could mankind ever have ceased to worship the false gods of paganism had not the Hebrew Lawgiver revealed the one God? "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" is the very foundation of the spiritual structure which alone constitutes true consciousness, the realization of the facts of being. This commandment went far toward lifting human footsteps out of the quicksands of materiality and superstition on to the firm ground of moral responsibility. All the Commandments were necessary and directly pertinent to human progress. None is superfluous and none unimportant. They constitute a standard about which the national life of the Hebrews rallied, enabling them to make their great contribution to the history of human progress.

Another illumination came with the advent of Jesus of Nazareth. In the words of John, "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." He struck an effective blow at the bondage of enslaved humanity. He turned the thoughts of men to God, the Father of us all, who creates and maintains His universe of ideas in unchanging perfection. The seed implanted by the Master in the waiting soil twenty centuries ago has borne much fruit; and now in the works of Mary Baker Eddy it is coming into its largest fruitage. Yet there have been many intermediary steps in the process of gaining liberty and independence between the brief ministry of the lowly Nazarene and the revival of primitive Christianity in the works of Christian Science. All too slowly the teaching of Christ Jesus has pervaded human thought, always seemingly obstructive of the healing Christ.

Political liberty in the form of civic independence has been slow of consummation. Twelve centuries passed from the beginning of the Christian era before a great forward step was taken in the lessening of human bondage. Magna Charta, that fundamental instrument of human rights, wrested from unwilling King John, has attained a degree of prominence scarcely dreamed of by the insistent barons. Its counterpart, marking still further progress in the gaining of political freedom, came on that memorable day, more than five centuries later, when the thirteen colonies of America declared themselves free and independent of the political control of the mother country. The spiritual and civic liberty which the Forefathers sought on the forbidding shores of the New World found its expression in this historic act. Yet without the revelation of Christian Science the demonstration would have been far from complete. The equality which the Declaration of Independence so bravely declares as existent among men is, obviously, a condition yet to be realized: that the children of God are equal, Christian Science explicitly teaches.

Christian Scientists are assured that the leaven of Truth revealed to Moses, working its way in the thoughts of men during the ages, is the "still small voice," the Christ, or spiritual Truth, ever ready to do its blessed work in receptive human consciousness. "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock," has ever been true of the healing and redemptive Christ in relation to human thought. A half century ago this illumination came to one spiritually prepared, and the Science of Christianity was discovered. This Science carries the problem of man's freedom from the bondage of matter and the gaining of true independence to its final conclusion. It reveals the utter unreality of all that is unlike Spirit, God; and man is found independent of matter.

Christian Science, too, has its Declaration of Independence, on page 468 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." These are the words of its preamble: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter." In such unmistakable language is matter's unreality declared! And, again, "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." How complete this affirmation! Only through gaining a realization of these great facts is true independence won. Mankind has seen the illumined peaks! Its need is to follow the light revealed.

Albert F. Gilmore.

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Divine Mind's Government

June 30, 1923

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