The increase in the number of Bibles distributed in the twentieth century has been meteoric. In 1900, nearly thirteen million Bibles and Testaments were sent out worldwide. According to the American Bible Society, 300 million Bibles and Scriptures had been distributed in 1989, and by the end of this century this number is expected to rise substantially. This is a wonderful achievement in spreading the Word of God. But going alongside this increase has been a marked decrease in obedience to one of the keystones of the Bible—the Ten Commandments. See Ex. 20:3—17 . Higher crime statistics, general disregard for sexual morality, and widespread unethical behavior are some of the outward signs of these times.
Is there anything that can be done to stem this corrupting malaise, which is undermining the very fabric of individual and community life? How do we think of the Ten Commandments in our own lives? Are they something written on two tablets of stone thousands of years ago on a remote mountain in the Middle East, formal rules that have since become the basis of Jewish and Christian ethics and of Western civilization? Many view them this way, but is there a higher, more spiritual way that we can use and practice these Commandments in our daily lives? Have we ever actually prayed with them?
For example, such prayer could begin by declaring the allness and oneness of God, His power and presence, with nothing to contradict them. This is the very first command of prayer, and Mary Baker Eddy gives it high priority when she states that the First Commandment is her favorite text. See Science and Health, p. 340 . She also writes in Science and Health, "The starting-point of divine Science is that God, Spirit, is All-in-all, and that there is no other might nor Mind,—that God is Love, and therefore He is divine Principle." Ibid., p. 275.
