Los Angeles herald., 1909-03-15
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
CONFERS FREEDOM
HUMAN MIND ENERGIES FROM
ONE BATTLE FOR ANOTHER
Bliss of Liberty Founded on Shifting
Sands of Opinion Rather Than
on Rock of Prin-
cipie

In the whole history of mankind there
is no record of greater sacrifices than
those called forth by the struggle to
establish civil and religious liberty. Yet
so inherently inconsistent is the human
mind that it has rarely emerged from
one battle for freeing its own neck from
the yoke of servitude before plunging
into another for the purpose of forcing
it's neighbours neck under yoke of its
own fashioning. To attempt to sub
stantiate this would be to embark upon
a history of the world. 1t is, indeed, so
notorious that it does not need even one
illustration. But the moral to be drawn
from it is obvious, and 1t is this, that
the idea of freedom which finds express
sion in such tactics must of necessity
be founded rather on the shifting sands
of mere human opinions than on the
adamantine rock of eternal Principle.
1t was this fact which Christ Jesus
brought out in that perpetually quoted
answer of his to the Jews, And we
shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you free" The construc-
ton of the text makes it perfectly
clear that he was, referring to abso-
lutte Truth, which is Principle, and not
to any mere relative knowledge which
would give a man freedom today and
cast him into bondage tomorrow.
Only a few months later, standing
a prisoner in the judgment hall of
PLATE, he brushed aside the claim of
the Roman to be able to give him his
freedom or send him to the cross with
the quiet declaration, Thou cOuldst
have no power at all against me, ex-
cept it were given thee from above
Freedom Meant Power
To Christ Jesus freedom meant the
power to rise superior to the physical
laws of the universe and the legal de-
crees of mankind. If he submitted to
the jurisdiction of PLATE it was only
because it was part of his plan for
demonstrating to the world it's power
over the supposititious laws to which
it was submitting. The man who
stilled the tempest and walked upon
the water would have had no more
difficulty in escaping from the bonds
of the Romans than from the
Vaccinations of the Jews. The free
dom which Jesus enjoyed is the right
of every one of his followers, and Will
be theirs Just exactly in proportion as
they truly follow in his steps. Chris
tan Science has come to show hui
mainly how it may earn this gift or
freedom by recognizing, as he recog-
nized, the allness of God and the abb
solute poWerlessness of evil.
When the translators of the Bible
rendered the saying of Paul, 81 was
born a Roman" as Il was free born,
they reduced the idea of freedom from
a spiritual to a political level. The
words of the Roman soldier to whom
Paul was addressing himself showed
this more clearly than anything else
could. with a great sum-" he said
obtained [ this freedom" AS a mat
ter of fact, there is only one price with
which real freedom ever can be bought,
and that price is the sacrifice of mans
materiality That is what Paul himself
ant ba wrote the COrinthi-
ans, II die daily" For only as man
begins to sever in his thoughts all the
innumerable bonds which hold him al
most unconsciously in a continuous en-
ioyment of material existence does he
begin to understand what it means to
repeat PauPs words.
He Realized Price
There was a centurion up in north
ern Gaul in the days of the persecu-
lions who realized the price that the
early Christians were sometimes will
ing to pay for freedom from material
ity. The order came that every soldier
in the army must pour out libation
to the Emperor or die. 1t was winter.
The centurion piled a great fire be-
side a neighboring lake and then
formed up his hundred men and
marched them past the effigy of the
emperor. Forty of them declined the
test. and were ordered out on to the
frozen lake to perish from cold. And
they went, and as they went they
sang:
Forty wrestlers wrestling for thee,
o Christ,
Claiming from thee the victory, and
from thee the crown"
The centurion stood by the fire puz-
zling what it all meant. Presently
through the darkness he saw one man
break from the ranks and come rush
ing back toward the fire to save his