To every one the Ten Commandments should be both guide and guard. Mankind has been commanded to obey them, not because obedience could in any way render a favor to or bestow a blessing upon God, but because such obedience opens consciousness to the realization of the blessings which God's love bestows upon men. Obedience to the Ten Commandments helps us to solve the problems of human existence, guiding thought to the understanding of man's at-one-ment with God. They stand for moral uprightness, and bestow upon the obedient freedom and security. As thought ascends from the material to the spiritual, they continue to lead into constantly higher and purer modes of thinking and living, guiding, indeed, "out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."
No one of the Commandments means more to the advancing student of Christian Science than the third. To the awakening consciousness it may seem to demand little more at first than abstinence from profanity; but obedience at this stage will mean much, for it will quicken self-respect, as well as respect for God, cleansing and clearing the way in order that spiritual truths may unfold. Later on, one will find it a demand for purified living in every detail of human affairs. As the desire awakens to call one's self a Christian, one realizes that his necessity is to follow and emulate the divine precepts which the master Christian lived and taught. Then one realizes that he does, indeed, "take the name of the Lord ... in vain" when he fails to present to the world a life which measures up to the standards his great Exemplar set. Still later, it becomes a command to "worship him [God] in spirit and in truth," never permitting mere words to pass the lips in song, prayer, or sermon, but before speaking to enter into the closet—the consciousness of God's presence—and commune with the Father "which is in secret." And yet later still, as the Christian Scientist reads the command, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain," with astounding force it becomes to him a definite commandment for healing.
A dictionary defines the terms "vain" and "in vain" in part as "unproductive," "to no purpose," that is, "without effect." Then, sharply and forcibly, Truth awakens one to the realization that "the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain"—who declares the truth ineffectively, in a manner unproductive of good results. Evidently, then, to declare the truth ineffectively, or to give a Christian Science treatment which is not a healing treatment, is to disobey the third commandment. This commandment goes farther: it shows the reason for the failure to be the omission of the one thing needful. One has failed to seek first God's guidance. He who turns to the Father in every instance will not be guilty of words without works; for is not the promise contained in the Scriptures: "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not"?
