LAW

TO the faithful student of Christian Science the fact soon becomes evident that human suffering and misery are the result of belief in and submission to laws, so called, which are totally devoid of existence or reality, and which are therefore powerless. This illumination of thought includes the awakening to the allness and oneness of divine law, as well as to the deception under which the human race at large is laboring. And this truth realized breaks the fetters of fear, gives the Christian Scientist the power and courage to oppose, denounce, and annihilate the oppression of false authority.

In her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 380), "Nothing but the power of Truth can prevent the fear of error, and prove man's dominion over error." And Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Free from what? From the fear of coming under false law—laws of matter, laws of the physical body, of disease, of sin, of decay and destruction.

The truth that destroys the illusion of evil law, thus setting men free, is the eternal verity, revealed through Christian Science, that God, good, is divine Principle, the origin of true law; and that, consequently, all law, with its power and authority, is included in the one divine Principle, omnipotent good. It follows that all real cause, law, power, is good, upholding and enforcing good only. Since God is the only lawmaker, evil cannot operate through law. As this is understood, all the pretensions of evil as power are seen as nothing, and it becomes apparent to the enlightened thinker that evil can have no true medium through which it can assert or establish itself. It has nothing by which it can enforce a result or effect, no agent through which to exercise power or control. Thus it is seen that evil, in whatever form it claims to exist, is to be dealt with as false belief.

The word "Principle," as Mrs. Eddy has used it, is a wonderful synonym for God. We learn in Christian Science that this all-upholding, maintaining, and governing intelligence, constituting all-power, all—presence, and all-activity, is infinite, all-embracing divine Love. What a joy and comfort it is to know that true law is the means of expressing the nature of the all-merciful, compassionate, all-knowing divine Principle! This understanding induces obedience to Principle, through which mankind is saved or liberated from servitude under spurious law. This saving or liberating process, which has nothing to do with punishment, consists of growing enlightenment, imparted and tended by divine Mind. It is well to remember this; for in the attempt to introduce discouragement and hopelessness, error may try to burden us with a sense of guilt which has to be atoned for.

If a student of mathematics works out a wrong answer to a problem, this may be due to his ignorance of the rule or law by which the problem is governed. The remedy is correction, not punishment: the unsatisfactory result is error's self-punishment. The correction is attained through the gaining of an understanding of the rule in question, which, in turn, enables one to solve the problem. Thus if, in his ignorance, one becomes a victim to error or evil, he does not need more misery or more suffering; he needs the enlightenment of spiritual understanding, whereby he can clearly see how he has been deceived, and so can lay hold of the truth and escape from the meshes of illusion. In real being, Principle never punishes. Principle does not know of any sin, because, as Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (pp. 470, 471), "The relations of God and man, divine Principle and idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He creates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history." Thus Christian Science shows that sin punishes itself, and that divine Principle expresses good alone.

Christ Jesus, our Way-shower, demonstrated the ever-presence and supremacy of God by destroying the effects of the so-called laws of matter or evil. In this way he uncovered the false claims of material law and proved it to be mere erroneous supposition. Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, discovered this mighty, divine Principle and the rules for its application to human needs, and gave them to the world in Christian Science. This Science is therefore the supreme law of God, and is consequently the only real Science and means by which mankind can be saved or made free.

Christian Scientists, equipped with the spiritual understanding of divine Principle and its law, have a glorious duty to perform. They must go forth fearlessly into the world to break every claim of false law that seems to exist and to hold mankind in bondage to fear, sickness, sin, and death, thus treading in their Master's footsteps and following their Leader. In their hearts, accompanied by the music of unspeakable gratitude, the words of the first stanza of Mrs. Eddy's hymn "Feed My Sheep" (Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 397, 398;) (Poems, p. 14) are echoed: