In a Christian Science service the invitation of a near-by church was read announcing the dedication of a branch church in that city. The following words were included in the announcement: "No Christian Science church is dedicated until free from debt."
The questions may well arise with every seeker of Truth: What is debt? When am I free from debt? Debt of any nature refers in a sense to an obligation or a claim, a bond held over one by another. To be free from debt we must meet our obligation, and thus eliminate any false claim on us held by another. And we must always remember that we have brought about this condition; that we have placed ourselves in this situation. Just as a bird may be seen entangled in a net and struggling to extricate itself, so does humanity struggle through its problems and conditions as if it were in a net.
Perhaps one is striving to be free from some disease, another from un-happiness of environment, another from financial trouble, all apparently difficult erroneous experiences. The bird flew into the net apparently of its own volition: the net did not go to the bird. It had allowed itself to be swayed by, perhaps, a false sense of distance, or of place in which to rest, by some lie which had appeared true in its eyes. Someone may say: But I have not deliberately flown into such an enmeshment; I never thought of the condition. Just here Christian Science comes in with its textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, illuminating the Scriptures so understandingly that we realize we have been swayed by some phase of false belief; and the forms it assumes may be many and varied until with eyes that see spiritually we are awakened to its deceptions. The victim then begins freeing his thought of material beliefs, and in so doing is opening the way to accept the good, the truth about God and man.
