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THE COMMANDMENTS, SCIENCE, AND THE LAW OF THE LAND

From the May 1949 issue of The Christian Science Journal


IT would startle most laymen and some lawyers to be told that everything entitled to the name of law has a deific origin. They would be astonished by the assertion that the law of the land under which we live stems from the Ten Commandments. It could not be otherwise, however, since all real law that ever was or ever will be is the law that emanates from the infinite God, who is Truth, and that law was revealed to Moses as the Ten Commandments, fulfilled in righteousness by Jesus, and discovered, interpreted, and demonstrated in our own age by Mary Baker Eddy. In answer to the question regarding her discovery, "How would you define Christian Science?" our Leader replies (Rudimental Divine Science, p. 1), "As the law of God, the law of good, interpreting and demonstrating the divine Principle and rule of universal harmony."

Isaiah declares (Isa. 33:22), "The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king." God thus not only gives all law, but as judge He also asserts what is equitable and just and as king enforces His own decrees. He is thus the legislative, the judicial, and the executive authority in the government of the spiritual universe.

Contrary to general belief, true law does not originate in the brains of judges, legislators, or monarchs. It has no human origin. It is spiritual in nature and therefore deific in origin. What we call human law approximates real law only as it patterns the divine commands and achieves divine justice in human relationships. Every morally sound rule of law enacted by legislatures or applied by courts is but a human utilization of a divine demand. Legislative enactments and court decisions which deny justice are not law, but false concepts of it. When the divine demands are enforced in human government, that government is a true democracy, for democracy is theocracy humanly expressed.

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