FREEDOM in every avenue of being is the radiant reality of man's true existence, his spiritual birthright; for "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him." On page 259 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy writes: "When the Lawgiver was the only law of creation, freedom reigned, and was the heritage of man; but this freedom was the moral power of good, not of evil: it was divine Science, in which God is supreme, and the only law of being." The upspringing desire for freedom, then, which is inherent in every human consciousness, is correlative and coexistent with the very source and resources of man's being.
In the first chapter of Genesis is described the spiritual evolution in human consciousness of the right idea of God, and of the universe and man. This description ends with the statement, "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." With God's work finished and complete, and all of it good, one might reasonably conclude that this was the end of the question. And in reality it is. Nothing can ever be added to this fundamental and basic fact of existence, and nothing can ever be taken from it. It is the rock, the sure foundation of all right thinking and action. On this foundation stone all that is real in religion must forever stand. This is where God's free, perfect man must be seen forever to abide.
Whence, then, comes the sense of bondage that would seem to contradict and reverse this ecstatic and real estate of man? On page 332 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy writes: "A sense of evil is supposed to have spoken, been listened to, and afterwards to have formed an evil sense that blinded the eyes of reason, masked with deformity the glories of revelation, and shamed the face of mortals. What was this sense? Error versus Truth: first, a supposition; second, a false belief; third, suffering; fourth, death." This supposing and false believing is described in the second chapter of Genesis as a mist that went up from the earth and "watered the whole face of the ground." From this mist, this mystification or false believing, has arisen all bondage of every name and nature. When it finds an open door into our consciousness, it seems to obscure our birthright of freedom. It has seemed to enwrap men in the subtle folds of its insidious logic until, since the beginning of its record in the Adam-dream only occasionally has the true spiritual idea, man, been seen rising above the mist and disproving the lie. To enforce the seeming authority of this mist, it boasts of power. At first, it may mildly press its claim. Then it grows more aggressive. Finally, if unrebuked, it seems to displace the son and heir, claiming for itself the true sonship. It promises material substance, pleasures, and joys. Its results are sin, sickness, poverty, death.
