ON page 227 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy writes: "All men should be free. 'Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.' Love and Truth make free, but evil and error lead into captivity." Every Christian Scientist recognizes the truth of that statement. Well does he know that the pursuit of evil, the practice of sin, ends in bondage, and that the thralldom can be broken only as divine qualities are allowed to reign in one's consciousness, only as "the Spirit of the Lord" is allowed to govern. How encouraging to know that it is the right of everyone to be free; that "all men should be free"! What hope the knowledge should inspire, even in him who believes himself bound to sickness or to the practice of some form of evil!
Christian Science shows plainly that belief in the reality of matter and evil is at the root of mankind's enslavement. Mortals believe that they live in matter—in a material body made up of material organs— and that this material body is subject to material laws over which they have little or no control. The result is that they seem to be to a great extent subject to the so-called material body, frequently suffering in consequence from disease. Again, mortals believe that matter is sentient, and that through the material senses they can derive pleasure. So believing, they cater to these false senses until in some cases they become their slaves.
"All men should be free." All men have the right to freedom; and Christian Science teaches how to secure it. This Science shows that men are enslaved by what is naught but illusion. It declares that the real man is God's image and likeness; that, consequently, man is perfectly governed by spiritual law, and that he therefore enjoys unalloyed freedom. The real man can never be enslaved, never fall from his high spiritual estate, never be subject to so-called evil. As the reflection of perfect Mind, man constantly manifests the harmony of Mind.
