WHAT queer conceits mortals have as to the real meaning and significance of law! We seem to be governed all the time by some kind of law, and yet how little we know about it! How few of us could give a satisfactory answer to the question, What is law? In our human relationships, in our adjustment to atmosphere, climate, occupation, environment, it would seem as though we were involved continuously in a question of law. Beyond the comprehension that law is an intangible force operating in the affairs of men, controlling and governing them, and that it is always accompanied by a penalty of some kind, the general concept of it may be said to be more or less vague. The belief about law is frequently characterized by a marked sense of dread, and the law may be invoked to compel reluctant obedience, just as the myth of goblins is held over a timid and frightened child to enforce compliance with parental orders. What a pity it is that either child or adult should be governed by the fear of ghosts or the fear of law. Both are false assumptions, since there are no ghosts and there is no evil law of which to be afraid.
Everything mortal, however, shares the general mistaken belief that law is somehow or other sinister and inherently hostile to man's being. We are constantly warned not to "break the law," and if anything happens, the explanation is ready at hand. We have broken some law! Laws of nature, as well as man-made laws, are supposed to be penalizing mortals all the time. Laws of matter, of physiology and anatomy, are a constant menace to health, according to medical theory. Indeed, much of mortal man's time is consciously or unconsciously spent in fearing law, in anticipating or trying to avoid a penalty for its infraction.
This state of mind reacts upon society, upon business, upon morality and physical health, in a manner not yet fully appreciated by religious and social reformers. There is no subject upon which the world more surely needs reformation than upon that which relates to its false sense of law. Mrs. Eddy speaks very plainly of the perverted sense of law in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 257) as follows: "The so-called law of matter is an immoral force of erring mortal mind, alias the minds of mortals. This so-called force, or law, at work in nature as a power, prohibition, or license, is cruel and merciless. It punishes the innocent, and repays our best deeds with sacrifice and suffering."
