ONE of the first questions that is usually raised in a legislative body, when there is presented to it a measure which if enacted into law would cause a more or less radical departure from what is regarded as the established order of things, is this: Is it constitutional? Webster defines constitution as the fundamental, organic law or principles of a state or nation. Politically speaking, then, a constitution is the basic law of a state or nation, by reference to which is determined the validity of all acts of the legislative body through which the people seek to accomplish the orderly and harmonious conduct of their affairs. Where there is obedience to laws which are in accord with the fundamental law, there is found to be less friction and more harmony pervading human activities; whereas, if a law is declared to be repugnant to the fundamental law, more or less controversy and discord will arise if people attempt to direct their affairs in accordance with such supposed law.
Now, if this line of thought be carried into the realm of the metaphysical, it will be found that the situations are somewhat analogous. The revered Leader of the Christian Science movement has discovered that God is the Principle of being, and since God is Spirit, fundamental law is a "moral and spiritual force of immortal and divine Mind" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 257), and it is from the standpoint of this law that we must deal with every so-called law which the material senses support. Christian Science declares that the physical senses can take no cognizance of Spirit, but in fact bear testimony opposed to Spirit, to the basic law of being; and that since God created only good, discords of every kind are supported by belief and not by the law of Spirit. To assume that God created evil, is to assume that evil exists by virtue of His law, whereas Science shows that evil's pretentious existence is only possible where God's law is not understood and applied. The earnest student of Christian Science is proving for himself and others that God's law is the law of harmony which annihilates everything discordant, and that this law when understood and applied destroys physical suffering and all the ills of daily life.
Christian Science reveals man as the idea or reflection of Mind, God; and if man does reflect God, the divine Principle of being, the question naturally arises, Whence are the discords that beset mortal existence? Mrs. Eddy supplies the answer with the statement that "mortal mind is the cause of all disease" (Unity of Good, p. 9). Mortal mind is the term used to express, among others, the belief of mortal man that he has a mind of his own, a mind in matter separate and apart from God, and that with this so-called mind he directs his earthly career, for the most part, independently of God, a belief which repudiates the eternal fact, disclosed by divine Science, that God is the Principle of being, and that He governs man not partially or part of the time, but absolutely and all the time.
