Mankind yearn for freedom, fight for it, live and die for it. But what is the ultimate purpose of this pursuit? Is it that men may live a life free of discomfort or that they may do simply as they please? Having achieved those states, what fresh meaning to living could they find? Today a new generation is grappling with the imperative question: Freedom for what?
It is clear that we need an understanding of freedom's true purpose in order to measure our motives, guide our efforts, and avoid, along the way, the pitfalls of freedom's counterfeits. Freedom undefined and for its own sake is vacuous. Irresponsibility, moral license, and doing as one pleases are sometimes defined as freedom. But are these really freedoms? Carried to their conclusions, they are seen to be only other forms of bondage. What, then, is true freedom, and what is its purpose?
The answer to this question lies in the understanding of true theology. It was found by a young person who appeared to be in bondage to a complicated, seemingly hopeless set of circumstances. As he was earnestly seeking the way out, he ran across, in a secondhand bookstore, a copy of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. Taking it home, he avidly pursued his reading of it, finding some real light thrown on his problem. He obeyed what he was learning from his study about the Principle that is God, though sometimes taking the steps pointed out required all the courage of his being. But in about three years all the complications had been dissolved one by one, and complete freedom was his reward.
