IT would be impossible to estimate the extent to which the First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," has influenced the thought of the world. Nothing certainly has done more to establish monotheism,—the doctrine of one God, —and so to destroy polytheism,—the doctrine of gods many. And because the First Commandment has served to establish the truth in the existence of the one true God, it has to an enormous degree destroyed idolatry, at least in its cruder forms. And all this in spite of the fact that until Christian Science gave its great revelation of God to the world, Deity was but very imperfectly defined to human consciousness.
It is obvious that the meaning of the First Commandment to one depends on the significance which the word "God" has to that one. If he has a limited sense of God, the commandment will be proportionably limited in the scope of its application. If God is to him a being after the pattern of a finite although very great human personality, then God to him will have the failings usually associated with human personalities. It is precisely because men have had erroneous beliefs about God that, notwithstanding the fact that the First Commandment has exercised an incalculable influence on human thought and conduct, generally, it nevertheless has not been given the place in the individual lives of men which it ought to have received.
In considering the First Commandment then, the endeavor first of all should be to obtain a correct and therefore reliable concept of God. This Christian Science supplies. On page 465 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy answers the question, "What is God?" in the words, "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love." In thus defining God, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science does more than was ever done before to enable the First Commandment to be obeyed; for it will be noted that God is declared to be infinite as Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.
