In all times thinkers have agreed that the commonwealth is the highest ideal for a nation, although there have been widely differing views in ancient and modern times as to how this form of government could be realized. It goes without saying that the ideals embodied in the commonwealth have been worked out in a more practical and satisfactory way in the United States of America than in any other country, and this is undoubtedly due to the fact that religious freedom was made the foundation stone of the great edifice which has been built up during the last two hundred years. This form of government, rightly viewed, always implies the recognition of the supreme governing authority and obedience to moral and spiritual law, for without these no human government can have stability or continue to exist. It is also clear that in the final analysis such authority is never dependent upon any individual or group of individuals, although it may be expressed through them, but rests upon the law which is itself the manifestation of eternal justice and right.
In the early history of the Hebrew people we find that under the leadership of Moses their thought was directed toward the divine government of the nation, and although there were priests and princes set over the tribes, yet they only held authority as they obeyed and expressed the divine law. As the years went on and the people intermarried with those of other nations we find them crying out for a king who would establish militarism in the land, but the prophet Samuel warned them against this and strove to direct their thought away from mortal man to infinite Mind.
Here we should remember that even among the judges and priests in the land of Israel there were few who expressed the pure spirituality which alone would qualify them to lead their fellow men into spiritual freedom, with its necessary expression in good government in which all the people shared, and which would necessarily bring prosperity to all. In Christian Science this is readily understood, and we see that, until the demands of Principle are recognized and kept constantly in view, the human tendency is ever toward retrogression; in place of the pure spirituality which is manifested in the application of divine intelligence to all things, superstition usurps the place of religion, and instead of men being firmly bound to God, good, they drift away from pure religion with its ideal conditions until all things tend toward chaos. On page 278 of Miscellany Mrs. Eddy says. "To coincide with God's government is the proper incentive to the action of all nations."
