Article March 20, 1965 Issue

The First Law of Heaven

WELLMAN E. GERKE

St. Paul , referring to the conduct of worship in the church at Corinth, said, "Let all things be done decently and in order" (I Cor. 14:40). This was no strange demand. A sense of order that reflects the divine order is a necessary part of mankind's experience if that experience is to be harmonious.

The account of creation given in the first chapter of Genesis is a record of orderly unfoldment, in which is found a logical sequence of the revelation of God's ideas. The spiritual significance of this creation, matterless but eternally substantial, is not grasped by material sense. However, a step-by-step orderly method is obvious, with creation appearing in a rising scale to its grand climax: man, the image and likeness of God. Since spiritual creation is orderly, it necessarily follows that spiritual orderliness must be the forever truth of being, and as such must be maintained throughout all creation.

Mrs. Eddy, the beloved Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, understood and practiced orderliness to a high degree. All her writings and teachings are manifestations of order and system. Her personal, household, and business affairs were conducted properly and with dispatch. Her Church and all auxiliaries for carrying forward the teachings of Christian Science unfolded in perfect sequence. Her life in this respect can be properly summarized in the following statement from her work '"Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 87): "The poet's line, 'Order is heaven's first law,' is so eternally true, so axiomatic, that it has become a truism; and its wisdom is as obvious in religion and scholarship as in astronomy or mathematics."

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