In looking over the world to-day, one cannot fail to notice a great restlessness, a striving after something not yet attained, which proves to the careful observer, that mankind has not yet found the "pearl of great price." Here and there, however, are seen those who seem to have found something that is more to them than all the world, and it is plain that they are slowly but surely turning from all that used to seem worth striving for, and that their one end and aim is to possess a certain great prize. The fact that thousands of intelligent men and women are earnestly working to reach the same goal, commands the attention of thinking people.
For centuries people have been striving for freedom. Noble lives have been spent in the endeavor to bring to humanity the priceless gift of liberty. But the true sense of liberty had been apparently lost sight of, for there can be no liberty while mortals are in bondage to the material senses. The only real liberty is the freedom that comes from health and holiness, which are synonymous terms; and this freedom is the goal toward which these earnest seekers, the Christian Scientists, are working.
To-day the Truth has been preached to the whole world, and all may hear the glad tidings of release from the bondage of sin, disease and death, and learn the way to the freedom of the children of God. How many have heard the message of freedom which has come to this age? And how many are in the same condition of thought to which Jesus referred when he said, "Having ears, hear ye not?" Those who have heard with the material ears, but have failed to grasp the spiritual meaning, will accept the letter, but not the spirit, although we are warned that "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." As there is apparently very little freedom in the world, it follows that there must be much seeming bondage. Are not all mortals more or less in bondage to some condition of mortal mind? One is a slave to fear of disease in one or another of its numerous phases, another is a slave to fear of the opinion of some friend or relative, while another bows down to fear of poverty. These foolish fears which seem to hold people in bondage, are too numerous to mention, and yet how can it be believed possible that God, Good, can be ruled out of his universe, and another power called evil usurp his omnipotence? The fact that man reflects Intelligence, proves that he has power to rise above so-called material conditions as well as mental slavery, for the higher can always control the lower. Think what a glorious freedom would be ours, if all these fears were destroyed! And they certainly shall be destroyed, for they have no exsistence in the Eternal Mind.
