All revelation of God good, has come to humanity in the form of spiritual law. This is the "voice of the Lord" speaking to the human heart throughout the cycles of time; hence the requirement of absolute obedience thereto. Ages ago, in a controversy over the meaning of obedience, the prophet Samuel uttered these significant words: "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." There can be no doubt, therefore, that obedience is a most precious jewel in the crown of him that "walketh uprightly" before his God: and it becomes a prime necessity in Christian Science to learn what true obedience means, and how it is to be rendered unto God.
One of the pitfalls of mortal belief is the assumption that it is next to impossible to render obedience to God divine Principle, because it seems so hard to understand Him. How can one understand God. Spirit, says material sense, when He seems so transcendental; and how can any one render obedience to that which is not understood? These objections, however, show that proper obedience to God cannot be rendered through the physical senses; also that God, divine Principle, can only be apprehended through the Science which declares Him aright. In other words, Spirit, Mind, alone, through Christian Science, gives the understanding of God to man and renders complete obedience possible. This, of course, may at first seem more than ever transcendental; but it is no more so than is the operation of the law of numbers. Does not, for instance, the law of numbers, when accepted and applied, unfold more and more to the understanding, and obedience thereto become easy and natural? Thus, when divine Principle is sincerely accepted, even in the smallest degree, and applied or lived, it will unfold naturally, and obedience thereto will become easy, since it is the normal state of man. Then God will manifest His infinite presence by "signs following;" and doubt and fear and stubbornness, the concomitants of disobedience and ignorance, will melt away by the activity of divine Love.
When thinking over God's relationship with man one is impressed with the infinite patience divine Love has constantly manifested. The psalms are full of references to the ''mercy of the Lord" and to His goodness that "endureth for ever." It seems, then, but a natural thing to expect that God, divine Mind, will in every conceivable way provide means whereby obedience can be more easily rendered, and the law of God better understood. This proves itself to be the case. When Moses led the children of Israel to their promised Canaan, he also gave them the Ten Commandments. His urging Israel to obey the "voice of the Lord" was not left open to the objection that they did not know what this "voice of the Lord" required of them. Thus, the understanding of Israel was to be trained in obedience to Principle as expressed by the Ten Commandments. It was to be trained to know and acknowledge God, Principle, not in an abstract way, but by obedience to definite laws and precepts. Israel was even in that early day to recognize the truth of the words of James that "faith without works is dead."
