As obvious as it is, I've been impressed again and again with the fact that the Bible has endured so long. Maybe my response says something about living in the twentieth century, where everything seems in a state of flux.

Of course, there are many explanations that can be given for the Bible's endurance. For many people the principal reason is that the Bible is God's Word. But there is at least one other reason that stands out: the Bible is an affirmation of freedom. It appeals to the conviction that you can't forever hold people in slavery. Spiritual enlightenment brings this fact to the forefront of thought.

Yes, the Bible draws a vivid picture of human folly. It shows the fallibility of mortals, the sad story of people who trust in things other than God's mercy and justice and love. But like the needle of a compass that always returns to pointing northward, no matter how often one turns and flips the compass itself, the Bible always returns to this central message of freedom.

The freedom found in the Bible is freedom with a divine purpose. It is freedom that magnifies the infinite goodness and reality of God, a reality that includes every individual. Even the Ten Commandments, which are often thought of as limitations or prohibitions, are presented as laws of liberation. Their preamble reaffirms the power of God to bring liberty: "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee ... out of the house of bondage." ^{Ex. 20:2.}

From this standpoint one can begin to understand the freedom that Christian Science brings. Science confirms our native instinct that we ought to be free of sin, disease, and death. And education in Christian Science is education that opens the way to this spiritual independence and freedom.

You can read through the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, from this standpoint. Its author was a crusader for the divine rights of man, and she drew her inspiration from the Bible. Even before she discovered Christian Science, she spoke out against slavery in the United States. And there are places in her writings where she casts the issues of spiritual healing and moral reform in the strong language of protest against tyranny—political, social, sexual, industrial, medical, and educational. And yet she did not see reform as coming through violent protest or physical conflict; rather she saw the great liberation of mankind from evil as coming into human lives through the spiritual power of Christ.

Christian Science casts the mental, moral, and physical liberation of mankind in the context of spiritual salvation. This is a fundamental message of Science and Health: "'Now,' cried the apostle, 'is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,'—meaning, not that now men must prepare for a future-world salvation, or safety, but that now is the time in which to experience that salvation in spirit and in life. Now is the time for so-called material pains and material pleasures to pass away, for both are unreal, because impossible in Science. To break this earthly spell, mortals must get the true idea and divine Principle of all that really exists and governs the universe harmoniously." ^{Science and Health, p. 39.}

We need a radical spiritual idealism that is grounded in experience and Christian healing. Such spiritual idealism and practical demonstration call for an equally radical system of education, one for people whose lives are turning to divine Truth and Love as their very own Life, defining their life purpose. This form of education can't simply be reduced to conventional methods of instruction but rather is instruction that grows out of the individual's own spiritualized thought and Christian purpose. And these develop in us as we begin to respond to the desire to be free, to stand unafraid of evil, committed to the kind of Christianity that sees today the necessity of reestablishing New Testament healing.

Like Gideon in the Old Testament, who saw his own forces stripped down to bare essentials prior to facing the foe to spiritual and moral liberation, ^{See Judg., chap. 7 .} Primary class instruction in Christian Science is similarly lean and stripped down to essentials. It's a unique form of ethical and spiritual education designed to develop the spiritual sense that already lies within men and women. Class instruction doesn't merely give out information about Christian Science; it enables one to order and to direct the spiritual good that has already been glimpsed in one's study of Christian Science.

Wouldn't such an education show us how to yield to God's power and grace? And surely it would reveal one's innate capacity to serve God and to play a vital role in the betterment of mankind. It would also be an education that allows the individual to take responsibility for his own thought and action, increasing individual initiative and holding him accountable to God and His divine law. This impels liberation, moral and physical.

If you've thought about class instruction, now may be the time to realize more fully that it's education that brings freedom—the freedom to serve God and your fellowman through the most profound Christian healing and regeneration.

Michael D. Rissler