Article March 19, 1904 Issue

The Keeping of the First Commandment

IDA L. WOOLWORTH.

As Christian Scientists, we are many times asked to state in a word what Christian Science teaches, and I always refer such inquirers to our church tenets.

It is now nearly five years since I really came to know what this great truth of Christian Science possessed for me, and as the years have passed, and each day has seemed to unfold new light, I have grown to feel that all of Christian Science is expressed in just two sentences. One of these sentences is familiar to all Christendom, and it is known as the First Commandment: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." The other sentence is found in our text-book by Mary Baker G. Eddy. It is this: "Divine Love always has met, and always will meet, every human need" (Science and Health, p. 494). Let us consider these two statements impartially, and see if from them we cannot draw lessons which are the basis of all true living.

Many of us learned this first commandment at our mother's knee, and perhaps some did so with a sense of relief, because it was so much shorter than the second. As I grew older, and long before severing my connection with the orthodox church, the first commandment had grown to embody all the other commandments, but how little I realized, even then, its true meaning.

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The Keeping of the First Commandment

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