From birth mankind is in a constant state of either apparently progressing according to so-called material laws or suffering from violating them. The child develops to maturity and then declines, according to these laws. A human being suffers from diseases by violating physical, man-made laws, and, in belief, he ultimately dies, according to the law of mortality. In fact, the whole material universe, including mankind, appears to be governed by material law. And, until the coming of Christian Science, the validity of these material laws was not questioned—except by spiritually enlightened men in Bible times.
Students of the Bible have always known that long before the Christian era prophets and patriarchs performed miracles contrary to so-called laws of nature, and that Jesus stilled the tempest, walked on the water, was immediately transported from one side of the lake to another, fed multitudes, found money in a fish's mouth, passed through closed doors, healed the sick and raised the dead— all in direct opposition to what today are called the laws of physics, gravitation, production, supply, physiology, and pathology. But they have believed that the putting aside of these material laws was due to some special power invested in these righteous men and in Jesus. The fact that Jesus' disciples and others, for a period of some three hundred years, emulated his works, has not always convinced them that Jesus' words, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also," are applicable to men in all ages. Through a spiritual interpretation of the Scriptures Mary Baker Eddy discovered that it was by means of divine law that Jesus annulled these natural socalled laws, and that divine law is as available today as it was to the wise men of earlier centuries, who understood and applied it.
Mrs. Eddy says (No and Yes, p. 30), "God's law reaches and destroys evil by virtue of the allness of God." She also says, "God's law is in three words, 'I am All;' and this perfect law is ever present to rebuke any claim of another law." And the Apostle Paul indicated the prerequisite for comprehending divine law, and the result of applying it, when he said to the Romans: "There is . . . now no condemnation to them . . . who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Amplifying this he said, "To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." Does not that plainly teach that to avail oneself of divine law one must turn from the carnal or mortal mind, the fleshly sense of existence, to Spirit, and the contemplation of things spiritual?
