Article July 26, 1913 Issue

LOVE AND LAW

JOHN ASHCROFT.

Law is defined, in part, as "a rule of action established by authority," and also as "established principle." The definition is not wholly adequate when applied to spiritual law, inasmuch as spiritual law is more than the expression of a law-giving, law-defining power; it is that power. The expression of the will of that which governs is inseparable from that which governs. This is illustrated by Mrs. Eddy in her statement that "God is not separate from the wisdom He bestows" (Science and Health, p. 6). Her definition of God as divine Principle affords a demonstrable basis from which to approach the study of spiritual law.

Spiritual law is the indestructible link between Principle and idea, between God and man in His image and likeness. It is the expression of divine Mind. That there can be more than one mind, and therefore more than one lawgiver, is an impossible admission, when it is conceded that Mind is infinite. There can be nothing beyond infinity, or within it, unlike itself. Divine Mind, therefore, is the "established" Principle of all law. Mortal mind claims to parallel the activities of divine Mind, claims to exist, and to be a creator, governing its creation by its own law; but mortal mind and its manifestations being counterfeits, and there being no counterfeit without a true original, mortal mind and its claims of expression do but serve, by reversal, to indicate divine Mind and its actualities.

The ten commandments are law, and they are also the expression of law. They are the declaration of the will of God in terms comprehensible by mankind; "our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ," as St. Paul said, to the perception and comprehension of Truth. In the good resulting from obedience to these commandments is manifested the perfection of the Principle of all that really is. The Mind that was in Christ Jesus was to him the only lawgiver, and it annihilated what those around him believed to be law, expressed in sin, disease, and death. He who "beheld in Science the perfect man" (Science and Health, p. 476), needed not the letter of the law to govern his relations with those about him; but recognizing humanity's need of a stated rule of conduct, he reiterated the Mosaic code, with the added admonition of supreme love for God and man.

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