THERE are many to whom the word "obedience" conveys a disciplinary and stern meaning. They maintain that the term implies restriction, curtailment of complete freedom of action; and that to be free to do as one pleases is more to be desired, even though the allurement may be but some whim or fancy, offering an illusory pathway to a garden of uncertain happiness.
Upon clearer discernment of the topic under consideration, however, one becomes aware that at all times he is in a state of obedience; that he is either being obedient to the demands of good,—reflecting righteousness and eschewing evil,—or else rendering obeisance to good's opposite, "the wiles of the devil," or the one evil. Paul had a clear recognition of this when he wrote so concisely to the Romans, "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?"
History records many illustrations wherein right-minded men and women, having glimpsed, without doubt, the permanent and satisfying nature of good and the evanescent and unsatisfying character of its opposite, have sacrificed much humanly in order to obey the higher vision attained by them. One of the most outstanding characters in the Old Testament in possession of this worthy quality was Abraham; while in the New Testament is to be found the unparalleled example of the great Way-shower, Christ Jesus. In our own day the name of Mary Baker Eddy comes to the thought of the many who have been so greatly blessed because of her obedience to the higher vision of God and man revealed to her, and of her faithfulness in giving this revelation to the world.
