Article October 10, 1908 Issue

LAW VERSUS STATEMENT

BLANCHE HERSEY HOGUE.

One who studies the Scriptures is given much reason to ponder the question of law and to think deeply concerning the law of God in its relation to the welfare of humanity. In modern thought the term law is universally used to distinguish the operative force which carries affairs systematically forward from cause to effect, and to define the process of continuous government, unseen by the physical senses, by which all existing things are related, regulated, and adjusted, whether they be universal or individual, moral, mental, or supposedly physical. The uninterrupted passing from cause to effect, the steady unfolding of component elements from a definite beginning to a logical ending, in the mental and moral life of the mortal, and in what are termed the physical conditions of man and the universe, are considered evidences of law which proves its existence by and through its effects.

That which is governed by law is admitted to be governed irresistibly, unfailingly. Law itself involves force, and law must by its very nature carry out the command of that which impels and compels it. Law knows no staying hand, else it would be less than law. Then whence, says the onlooker, arises this which looks like the blighting and blasting and upsetting of law in the natural world, this apparent confusion and tangle in the affairs of men, this chaotic rule which claims to be law, and which to all appearance thwarts the intention and operation of God's law? Or, again, are there not many kinds of law, lesser and greater, evil and good, material and spiritual, each and all struggling for supremacy? Material evidence answers that it cannot account for the origin of this discord, but admits its presence and confirms its claims. Enlightened analysis, however, from the standpoint of Christian Science, shows so-called material or evil laws to have no basis in eternal, divine Mind, and hence to be nothing but statements,—statements of aggregated human belief, so long and so universally believed that they have come to operate in an assertedly logical sequence which simulates law, and to govern wherever they are accepted as law. Divine Mind operates through the action of law, and the counterfeiting carnal mind of mortality very naturally apes the divine method and calls that law which is nothing more nor less than a false statement,—a cleverly constructed and lawful-appearing lie about the truth.

Webster defines law: "In general, a rule of being or of conduct, established by an authority able to enforce its will; a controlling regulation; the mode or order according to which an agent or a power acts." A statement is defined as "that which is stated; a formal embodiment in language of facts or opinions." Hence, much that is generally named law is thus seen to be a mere "embodiment in language" of opinion, rather than of fact. Eternal Truth is stated; God's Word is stated; law is stated; but error, too, finds words for itself, so that the one is a statement of fact, the other a statement of untruth. Christian Science reveals God, good, to be the only power, and law to be that only which carries out the will of God, the will that is good, for man and the universe. From this basis it looks out upon the conflicting elements of evil and challenges as false statement all that would frustrate the dominion of good. Law must be true, and move majestically to establish all that accords with Truth. A statement of the truth is true, but a statement claiming that any power is existent in evil is false, no matter how plausible it may appear, and the only hope such statement has for its claims is its possible temporary acceptance as truth. Furthermore, let it be remembered that any kind of a statement about any existing condition or circumstance, if erroneous, is not at any instant true, even though for generations millions of earth's peoples have believed and still believe it, accepting its procession of suggested causes and effects as the invincible law and fact of existence.

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