"Indeed I was freeborn, and I am absolutely free at this moment! I am not in bondage to any person or to any thing!" would be the vigorous reply in almost every country of the western world, should anyone suggest that slavery still exists. Yet, if the matter be considered solely from the material standpoint, the very person so vehemently declaring himself free may be in bondage.

Consider for a moment a man who is now an active Christian Scientist. In 1940 he could not stand upright. He walked with great difficulty. An X ray showed a double curvature of the spine and the pelvis out of plumb. The attending surgeon proposed keeping him in bed in a cast or performing a difficult and serious operation. It is no exaggeration to say that this man was in bondage. To mortal sense he was bound, helpless.

Fortunately he knew something about Christian Science and rebelled against his slavery. He started thinking of himself as free in God's eyes. Soon he had the courage to declare his freedom outwardly; he would not be operated upon, nor would he live in a cast. He turned wholeheartedly to Christian Science; he learned more about his true being as God made him. As a result, he was made free. Today it is his duty to cover a manufacturing plant a half-mile long and four stories high; there is no elevator. He walks many miles each day and has done so for several years. He stands perfectly upright and carries on his duties without fatigue or pain.

Another instance of liberation from bondage occurred in the experience of a man who had everything to make him happy— responsible position, fine family, beautiful home. But liquor had gradually become his master and threatened to destroy him and imperil his family. The sincere efforts of his respected family physician and the conscientious work of several specialists failed to loosen his bonds. Finally he too turned unreservedly to Christian Science. He too learned more about man as God made him. He, also, was made free!

If some disease claims to dominate us or some pernicious habit seems to bind us, or a disagreeable trait of character appears to haunt us, we too can be liberated. We have the right and the ability to resist evil on the basis that God made man free. We may declare that we are subject to Him alone; that it is His law which governs man and maintains his freedom. Of course, man is freeborn! And we are justified in vehemently asserting the absolute truth regarding ourselves. God has given us this self-dominion. He has made man free, and that which He has made can never be in subjection.

"Slavery is not the legitimate state of man," Mary Baker Eddy writes on page 227 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." Then she continues: "All men should be free. 'Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Over and over we must remind ourselves that God made man in His own image, spiritual, and free from every claim of evil. Nothing can possibly change His perfect and everlasting creation.

"Good thoughts are an impervious armor; clad therewith you are completely shielded from the attacks of error of every sort." These words of Mrs. Eddy's are to be found in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 210). Each of us must constantly strive to be clothed with this invincible armor of good thoughts. Good thinking is always constructive, magnifying freedom and dwelling on health, happiness, harmony.

When Paul said (Acts 22:28), "I was free born," he was in custody. So, when we are tempted to believe that some tenacious sense of sickness or other inharmony is binding us, we must vehemently declare as did the apostle, "I was free born." If we understand that God gave man dominion and that a belief in materiality cannot possibly change the status of man, we shall find ourselves manifesting freedom.

Paul proved his own freedom so completely that he could write to the Galatians (5:1), "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." We too must "stand fast" and not be lulled into bondage by some pernicious habit or so-called social custom. When we are so tempted, we must demonstrate our everlasting dominion from the standpoint that God is man's Father, our heavenly Father, and that man expresses Him.

Paul also had this to say regarding liberty (Rom. 8:2): "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." As working Christian Scientists we too must declare our immunity from and our superiority over the entire fallacious law of sin and death. The eternal and ever-operative law of God annuls any supposed material law. God's law is, in reality, the only law and governs each one of His children now and always.

Mrs. Eddy not only encourages us to rise to the heights to which Paul rose but explains how we are to do this when she says (Science and Health, p.393): "Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man." Could words be more encouraging than these? Could the directional posts pointing upward be clearer? Could advice possibly be more explicit?

The rule is simple; it needs but to be applied. If evil of any kind attempts to dominate thought, "rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good," knowing that man is freeborn.