LIBERTY is a theme that has occupied the more or less thoughtful attention of philosopher, statesman, politician, and theologian, since the beginning of mortal history. To-day, more than ever before, students of sociology are applying themselves to the solution of problems relating to the inter-dependence of units, in the aggregation called society. How much one may govern another, how much individual freedom of thought and action each of us has by divine right, are questions still unsettled in practice. Anarchism, socialism, and all other isms of human origin, pretend to have discovered a way out of the difficulties of government. I am well assured that Christian Science alone promises any satisfactory or genuine remedy, for the reason that, as with all other forms of error, it deals its chief blow, at the cause, while all other efforts, ancient and modern, confine their energies to the abatement of specific effects, leaving the general cause still, seemingly, operative.
Too much government, civil, ecclesiastical, and personal, is the curse of the centuries. The human mind's desire to control something or somebody besides itself results in countless forms of mesmerism, although they may not pass for such. The need of liberty, the charm and beauty of freedom, do not become apparent until the opposite condition asserts itself, and we find ourselves without these divine gifts. From the standpoint of Christian Science, it becomes evident that all the distress of government comes from the interpolation of the human, or personal element, in the divine equation of God and man.
The first President of the United States said: "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, — it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."
