Dominion

EDNA WHITEHURST

One day several years ago, when confronted by a baffling and disturbing problem, the writer turned to The Christian Science Monitor and read a narrative, the lesson of which proved most helpful.

It was the simple story of a mother eagle which had been captured and chained to a tree. As time passed, she seemed to become resigned to her fate, and spent most of her time walking around the tree at the extreme length of the chain. After two years the owner decided to give the eagle her freedom, and the chain was taken from her foot. At first she kept on in her beaten path around the tree. Gradually, however, she began slowly and cautiously to step away from the path; the huge wings were stretched, and soon, prompted by an innate instinct, came the desire for flight. But the long bondage had had its effect, for after rising a few feet from the ground she faltered and fell. With renewed hope and energy she tried again, and this time rose higher, only to come back to earth. Undiscouraged, undaunted, again and again she tried, each time rising higher, until at last she soared up and away to her mountain home.

Mortals, chained to materiality, in bondage to fear, superstition, uncertainty, disappointment, failure, lack; to so-called laws of heredity, contagion, fatalism, and age; to sensuality, envy, malice, hate, sin, sickness, death, year after year, generation after generation, have gone around in a beaten path of false belief, more or less resigned to what has seemed to them inevitable bondage. There has always been a way out through the love, power, and goodness of God, but not until Mary Baker Eddy, through inspiration and divine revelation, discovered and proved that the promises and admonitions of the Bible could be made scientifically practical, that the deliverances, healings, and blessings recorded therein as coming from God could and should be repeated here and now, and that Jesus' mission was to teach and prove this—not until then was the way discerned and the chain removed for humanity.

On page 227 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says: "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! This is your divine right." Thousands of individuals gladly, gratefully, humbly, bear witness to the fact that Christian Science has delivered them from bondage, and that they have found true the concluding words of the paragraph cited above, "The illusion of material sense, not divine law, has bound you, entangled your free limbs, crippled your capacities, enfeebled your body, and defaced the tablet of your being."

The ability to fly is inherent in the eagle. Just so, goodness and harmony are inherent in man. Man lives to reflect and express God, good; and he does this through manifesting Godlike qualities. This is one of the first things we learn in our study of Christian Science. Then we recognize how un-godlike many of our thoughts and ways have been, and see pressing need for correction. It may be, however, that, like the eagle when it was first freed, some, even though they have directly witnessed or experienced the healing, helpful influence of Christian Science, go on in the old way. But sooner or later the response to innate goodness and holiness must be made by all, and the journey away from bondage to materiality into the freedom of spirituality be begun. The goal is perfection.

To go forward requires spiritual vision, courage, obedience, patience, alertness, faithfulness, humility, unselfed love for God, man, and church, gained through close study of and adherence to our Leader's teachings. On page 22 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy tells us that "final deliverance from error, whereby we rejoice in immortality, boundless freedom, and sinless sense, is not reached through paths of flowers nor by pinning one's faith without works to another's vicarious effort." But she also says (ibid., p. 15), "Christians rejoice in secret beauty and bounty, hidden from the world, but known to God." So, although like the eagle newly released we may fall back many times, yet, if we are honest and persistent, we shall find ourselves experiencing the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

Each suggestion of error reversed; each fear proved groundless; each supposed attack of the carnal mind proved powerless; each belief of enmity overcome; and each problem solved and blessing obtained, through our understanding of and dependence on God, our Father-Mother, takes us higher and higher above the ways of material sense until, sometime, we too shall find our full dominion and shall rejoice in the realization of spiritual freedom.

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