Editorial November 11, 1911 Issue

LAW AND OBEDIENCE

Annie M. Knott

In talking recently with the pupils in a Sunday school class on the subject of the commandments, the writer asked these young people of what practical value law would be in human experience without obedience. It is self-evident that law must be operative on the human plane, and that responsiveness to the demand of every just law gives a larger sense of freedom, rather than restriction, as so many seem to imagine. Divine law implies divine protection,—it safeguards life and all that makes life desirable; yet without obedience the protection is missed and instead we have penalty, which so many mistakenly believe to be divinely inflicted. Disobedience to God's law of necessity brings penalty, for the very reason that obedience brings blessing and protection, and without obedience these cannot be realized. The psalmist says, "Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." Neither ignorance of divine law nor disobedience to it can secure the protection which we all need and desire.

In Science and Health (p. 183) we read, "Obedience to Truth gives man power and strength." Obedience, rightly understood, is a spiritual quality, and it tends to lighten every burden by making every duty easy. Even on the physical plane a ready obedience to every right requirement does wonders in the way of agility, suppleness, and grace in bodily activity; whereas the mental habits of obstinacy and self-will not only affect the outward movements of the body, but undoubtedly influence adversely all its functions which ought to be controlled by the higher nature and reflect its obedience to spiritual law. For this reason, if for no other, children should be taught from their earliest hours the tremendous importance of obedience to right, and shown that this obedience will equip them to resist and set aside the unjust enactments of mortal mind, including its laws of disease, misfortune, and death, these having no divine authority. Our revered Leader says, "The entire education of children should be such as to form habits of obedience to the moral and spiritual law, with which the child can meet and master the belief in so-called physical laws, a belief which breeds disease" (Science and Health, p. 62).

People often wonder why their bodies do not yield to the declarations of Science which they make, when the trouble is that their thought has never been trained to that ready and intelligent obedience which leads to the highest results on every plane of endeavor. People also question the need of argument in the healing work of Christian Science, when it should be readily seen that mortal mind invariably stops to argue every demand which calls for obedience, and often contends for the wrong when it should promptly surrender to the right. The arguments of Truth are therefore the most effective weapons wherewith to meet the resistance of the blinded mortal sense.

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