GOD'S LAW NOT VIOLATED

Archibald McLellan

On page 104 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy quotes Professor Agassiz as having said, "Every great scientific truth goes through three stages. First, people say it conflicts with the Bible. Next, they say it has been discovered before. Lastly, they say they have always believed it." The truth of this saying is being proved from day to day by such statements as the following, which we quote from the Congregationalist, one of the best known religious papers : —

Can the works of Jesus be repeated? This is the question of greatest interest at present concerning the New Testament miracles. We are not left in doubt as to what they were. Jesus describes them in these words, as his message to John the Baptist: "The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them." These were the miracles he empowered and commissioned his disciples to work: "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." It was these deeds that the writers of the Gospels described as "the works of the Christ." It was such deeds as these that Jesus referred to, "the works that I do in my Father's name," as bearing witness that he was the Son of God. It was such deeds as these that he spoke of as "works which none other man did," and yet said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do." For a long time it has been usual to avoid interpreting these words in their natural sense as meaning miracles, and to explain their fulfilment in the power of Christ's disciples to persuade men to believe in him and to accept his teaching. But it may be that we are to rediscover the mission of his Church to minister both to the bodies and the souls of men with divine power imparted by him; and perhaps we shall call the results of the exercise of this power "mighty works," or miracles, without meaning that they are violations either of the natural or spiritual laws of God.

This is a wide departure from the old doctrine, which regarded our Master's works as something apart from all law and order, and which even yet maintains, but with less and less insistence, that the healing work of Jesus and the apostles was a special dispensation for a limited time and for a limited purpose. It is, however, somewhat of an anomaly that a religious paper published in Boston, when discussing this subject of Christian healing, should ignore, as does the Congregationalist, the fact that Mrs. Eddy has already rediscovered "the mission of his Church to minister both to the bodies and the souls of men with divine power imparted by him [Christ Jesus]," and that she has declared and proved that his "mighty works," or miracles, are not violations of the law of God. We refer to these words from Science and Health (p. 134) : "A miracle fulfils God's law, but does not violate that law. . . . The miracle introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order, establishing the Science of God's unchangeable law."

Archibald McLellan.

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