Article June 8, 1912 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from John F. Carson

[New Church Messenger.]

No one can get out of the domain of spiritual law. Yet by cultivating a love for things true and good, he may become unmindful of commands forbidding evil. He can come into such life, interests, and love as never to hear the commandments say to him, "Thou shalt not," as a command. The only possible way to come out from under the law is to come into such a state of life as to be led by love for the good. If one finds his chief joy in doing as the commandments teach, he practically forgets the commands. The law is then written on his heart, and what formerly he did from command, he then does from love. Thus he comes into a state of life above the law, within the law. He then is under grace in the sense that he is led not from thought of what is right, not from commands, but from the love of doing right and from the consequent happiness. The only way to come out from under the law and under grace is so to love what is true and good as to do it without thought of what is true or commanded, and from the affections of the heart. The law is ever present, and ever will be present. Law cannot be suspended for a moment, for the divine law is nothing other than the way that divine love acts. The law is as perpetual and unchangeable as the Lord's life itself. But it is possible for one to come into the essence of the law, which is love; and then, having no desires contrary to the law, he is free to do anything that he wishes. Commands and the law are then no restraint, for his inmost life is become the essence of the law.

[Christian Commonwealth.]

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