In the annals of the early Christian fathers, the following tradition is found respecting the breaking of the first tables of the law which Moses brought down from the mount to the children of Israel. The first tables, it is said, were inscribed with the "primal and eternal law of God," that "man is created in God's image." When Moses brought these to the people, and found them in their depravity, he realized that they were not ready for the purely spiritual law, so he prepared a new set of tables containing a form of commandment suited to their comprehension, with its "Thou shalt not" covering all the sins of the people.
Irenæus says: "The moral law contained in the decalogue, states those natural and eternal truths which have at all times been the ground of salvation, and are written upon the consciences of all men; are, in fact, that image of God in which man was created. This was written upon the first tablets given to Moses. God gave them a second law of slavery suited to their low moral state." While this may be a human invention, it has its appeal of interest, because in this age there has been revealed anew through Mrs. Eddy the fact that man is indeed the image and likeness of the Most High.
When the truth is revealed to us in this statement, the human mind, looking out from its educated and inherited beliefs, at first sees no possible, practical hope of redemption through this understanding of the divine law and manifestation. It seems but a Utopian dream, beautiful to talk about, but to be put away with the Sunday clothes or upon a shelf with the family Bible, occasionally to be looked at as a curiosity. Out of curiosity it is tried, however, or perhaps through the inspiration of some neighbor's example and success, and it is found that in working from the basis of absolute Principle, the sick can be healed, difficulties relieved, and varied problems solved, so that men are born again. They enter upon a new life, a life which becomes a constant endeavor to construct and expand the demonstrably true in consciousness and to put away all false concepts.
