The Christian Scientist has great cause for gratitude because of the spiritual freedom that has come to him. We are living in an age in many ways the most enlightened in the world's history. The arts flourish in peace; politics, no longer the sport of the privileged, is now the rightful study of every thinking person; the natural sciences are revolutionizing every phase of the common life, bringing the ends of the earth closer together than they have ever been before, and by the very integrity of their general purposes, striking forcibly at the material basis which claims to support them. What is making all this possible? What is at work among men enabling them in comparative quiet to prosecute these various agencies? The answer lies in the fact that the world to-day is enjoying a measure of spiritual freedom such as it never has before enjoyed.
The seeds of this spiritual freedom were sown when the Ten Commandments were formulated on mount Sinai. Christ Jesus brought out the spiritual significance of the Decalogue in the Sermon on the Mount; and revealed the nature of God as Truth, and the spiritual fact that Truth, although absolute in its nature, can be known by men. The understanding of spiritual truth leads to spiritual freedom; and of it the Master said: "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
What long years of patient waiting, what strenuous years of struggle this has meant! Every inch of the way has had to be wrested from the hands of ignorance. Mortal mind, the would-be destroyer of liberty, the enemy to progress, has resisted every step taken for the emancipation of the human race. One is profoundly grateful for the heroic work of the past; for all that men have braved for Truth's sake; for the purity and sincerity of the motives which have enabled them to perceive the virtue of goodness; and for the courage that has made it possible for them to put that virtue to the test of practice.
