Few mortals there be who have not, at one time or another, wooed that inconstant wraith, the desire to command, to dominate. Note a group of children at play. If the game be football, there is at once a contest as to who shall be captain. If they play at soldiers, the preliminary strife deals with the selection of the commanding officer; and this moot point is likely to be settled not by vote, but by the dominant assertion of one lad that he will be the general. And through the whole comedy drama of human experience appears to be woven this thread of the carnal mind's assertive will.
Is it not possible that this desire to dominate, to command, springs from the innate longing of mortals to escape from the cruel bondage of materialism, and to taste in some measure man's dominion over the so-called forces of evil? The first Scriptural reference to man sets forth the glorious heritage of God's noblest work. In the first chapter of Genesis (verse 26) we read, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion." And referring to this spiritual man, Mary Baker Eddy, in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 518), writes: "His birthright is dominion, not subjection. He is lord of the belief in earth and heaven,— himself subordinate alone to his Maker."
The difference between mortal mind domination and the spiritual man's dominion should be apparent to every deep thinker. As the understanding of man's true status as God's image or expression dawns on thought, there will be found less and less of the tendency toward human dictatorship, and a growing desire to see oneself and the brother governed and controlled by that infinite Mind which is God. Thus do we reflect the eternal dominion of good over evil, light over darkness.
