THE word "law" conveys to the average individual a sense of hardness, sternness, an unbending force that pursues and punishes its transgressors remorselessly, with eyes blind to all alleviating circumstances. This attitude toward law is begotten of the carnal mind, which hates all restrictions, all limitations placed upon its inherent unbridled license. Good being naturally lawful, it follows that evil, error, is necessarily of a lawless nature.
Law in Christian Science is understood as causation in operation; it is the link that connects the cause with the effect, the "cord of lovingkindness" that unites them; it is the act of transmission from Mind to idea, the process and mode whereby Mind, active intelligence, is recognizable. Law connects the moment between the divine fiat "Let there be light" and its fulfilment "And there was light." Law joins "God spake," to "And it was done." The stars circle in their appointed place by law; the morning flowers are bejeweled with dew by law. The mighty sun bows burnished obedience to law as certainly as its tiniest beam. Law underlies cosmos; lawlessness is chaos: therefore law cannot be unkind; law is as tender as its source, Love. No part of infinity could be removed without the collapse of infinite unity; hence law is an integral part of the unity of good, a necessary factor in the character of God. The failure to recognize this indicates ignorance or moral obliquity.
Here it may be asked, Must we wait until we are wholly dwelling in an absolute state of spiritual consciousness before we become law-abiding? To this Christian Science answers, No! If we tried to do so we should ever remain waiting. Spiritual consciousness is to be attained by the fulfilment of the responsibilities entailed in spiritual consciousness, obedience to law is part of our responsibility. Mrs. Eddy was a great spiritual jurist, and nowhere outside of the Scriptures is to be found an explication of spiritual and moral law equal, in any direction, to that given in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." To the scientific metaphysician the text-book of Christian Science is the standard authority on spiritual jurisprudence. The statements in this wonderful book are not involved in legal terminologies hard to be understood, but are capable of apprehension and demonstration by simple folk. On page 342 the author says, "If Christianity is not scientific, and Science is not of God, then there is no invariable law, and truth becomes an accident." It is clear from this that all Christian Science healing is based on law,—immutable, irrefragable law. The victim of false material concepts of law, such as contagion, climate, heredity, can by an understanding of the truth, per se or by proxy, be removed beyond the scope and pale of this false jurisdiction and placed under the healing operation of divine law. This operation is spoken of by Paul where he says, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."
