Certainly at no time in the world's history has a greater opportunity been presented for spiritual thinkers to bless and benefit their fellow men, for through Christian Science the redeeming and saving Christ has been revealed. To us has been revealed the demonstrable understanding of God's omnipotence and the possibility of saving mankind from destruction through the power of divine Love.
But when one contemplates the mortally mental picture that the world and confused humanity present, perhaps the suggestion may come: "Well, what can I do about it? I am only one." In Christian Science we should remember that each one of us is a very important one—one to whom has come the truth of being, the perfection of being, one who knows man's oneness with God right now. In Christian Science spiritual perception does not permit us to accept the mortal picture as real. We know that from the altitude of true being—and this is the only spiritually scientific approach—the world conditions, no matter what frightening form they may try to assume, are a lie about God and His infinite, perfect being and must be denied reality in the same way that the belief of disease must be denied. Knowing the truth of God's omnipotence and omnipresence enables us to deny all reality to the erroneous picture; in fact, the truth declared is of itself a denial of the lie.
Our spiritual knowing today is expressed in the revelation and unfoldment of divine ideas. These ideas naturally represent the omnipotence of God, and we must accord to this spiritual knowing, or prayer, all the power and effectiveness it is entitled to have. One's alertness and readiness to do this also bring an assurance of one's own protection and safety.
What shall we know that will be most effective and helpful? How shall we be sure that we are thinking correctly? In the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes (p. 201): "The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love. Christian perfection is won on no other basis." It may seem inconsistent and contradictory to know and declare that we have no enemies and yet see the nations involved in a material defense program, but this is exactly what we must do. There are no enemies in God's universe. If we believe that we live in a world of enemies, we can have the result of that belief. Are the people of any nation our enemies? Are the unhappy and enslaved of mankind our enemies? Are the millions of our brothers born, in belief, into systems of despotism and mental darkness our enemies? Christian Science reveals and declares that they are all—every one of them—in their true being God's ideas, the sons of God, divine Mind's representatives, even while the human sense of things claims that they are mortals, enslaved by the Pharaohs of today and by the false theological systems of the centuries.
Irresistible divine Love, which is the source and origin of man's being and of all God's children, must impel us to work daily to lift the curse of mental slavery. In line with this the Christian Science textbook says (pp. 225, 226): "Legally to abolish unpaid servitude in the United States was hard; but the abolition of mental slavery is a more difficult task. The despotic tendencies, inherent in mortal mind and always germinating in new forms of tyranny, must be rooted out through the action of the divine Mind.
"Men and women of all climes and races are still in bondage to material sense, ignorant how to obtain their freedom. The rights of man were vindicated in a single section and on the lowest plane of human life, when African slavery was abolished in our land. That was only prophetic of further steps towards the banishment of a world-wide slavery, found on higher planes of existence and under more subtle and depraving forms."
Christian Science declares that both generically and individually man is free. Every idea in God's infinite being is free and unfettered. Freedom necessarily characterizes every manifestation of God. God being the only action, all action is free action. Man is the conscious and forever expression of freedom. Freedom is a divine, omnipresent idea inherent in man's true being. As an omnipresent idea of God it dissolves and destroys the lie of mental slavery and bondage when understood. Man is the consciousness of freedom; no one today is separated from the present awareness of that divine fact. Under the marginal note "Higher law ends bondage," Mrs. Eddy writes in the textbook (p. 227):
"The law of the divine Mind must end human bondage, or mortals will continue unaware of man's inalienable rights and in subjection to hopeless slavery, because some public teachers permit an ignorance of divine power,—an ignorance that is the foundation of continued bondage and of human suffering.
"Discerning the rights of man, we cannot fail to foresee the doom of all oppression. Slavery is not the legitimate state of man. God made man free. Paul said, 'I was free born." 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."
Now the "Spirit of the Lord" is here; it is everywhere. It is the divine All-presence, and it is our privilege and opportunity to maintain it. Many times a day we can know freedom and declare it. We represent freedom because spiritually man is the individual expression of God's being, which is infinitely free.
The allness of Love, established and demonstrated as the only consciousness of man, means the end of hate and makes war an impossibility. Let us then pour in what our Leader calls the flood tides of Love. This we do through the knowledge that all true consciousness is Love; that Love is the only reality of being, and that man has no consciousness apart from Love. All men have one Love, and when we know this, no one is left out. As Paul declared to the Athenians (Acts 17:28), "In him [infinite Love] we live, and move, and have our being."
Knowing the all-presence of Love, and including all peoples, nations, and religions in that knowing, must destroy fear. One cannot know the truth of Love's all-presence, and hate or be afraid of men or nations. As fear departs, freedom and love appear, and the unity and brotherhood of man are demonstrated.
The world needs the compassion and love of the Christ, and we as Christian Scientists must demonstrate that love in order to bless mankind today. Most of the people on earth have never had anything but a background of ignorance. They have had no spiritual or mental liberty. They were, in belief, born into serfdom and false religious dogmas. Then how can one condemn or blame them? What they have done or may do is the expression of ignorance and the lack of spiritual and mental maturity. Surely perception of this fact reveals today's great opportunity and will enable us to work much more earnestly to bring forth the evidence of universal freedom and the brotherhood of man.
