Article May 2, 1914 Issue

Law

CLARA PARK

Law in its highest sense signifies an established, irresistible rule of action emanating from divine Principle and governing the whole universe. Divine law is not subject to legislative amendment or enactment, but remains as unchangeable throughout all time as God Himself. As the planets move through the universe in accordance with a prescribed rule of action, never deviating from their regular course, so each of God's ideas acts in accordance with the direction of infinite wisdom and Love, and every so-called material condition is subject to the authority of spiritual law.

Blackstone evidently caught glimpses of the truth when he said, in referring to divine law, "It is binding over all the globe, in all countries and at all times; no human laws are of any validity if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all their force and all their authority mediately or immediately from this original." Thus it will be clearly seen that since human laws derive all their validity from divine law, any provisions of our statutes contrary thereto are null and void. Nevertheless, it would not be in accordance with the direction of infinite wisdom for one to attempt rashly to abolish or act contrary to the provisions of human law which at the present time are subserving the needs of mankind until human thought has outgrown the conditions which render these provisions necessary. Nothing destructive is authorized by infinite Love. Jesus said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." Still it is necessary for any one engaged in the practice of law to be awake to the truth that justice is not dependent upon the provisions of human statutes, the decision of a court or the verdict of a jury. There is in reality but one lawmaker and one judge. It is necessary to know and affirm this fact constantly, for if we do not we are held in subjection to mortal provisions. Mrs. Eddy says on page 445 of Science and Health, "You render the divine law of healing obscure and void, when you weigh the human in the scale with the divine, or limit in any direction of thought the omnipresence and omnipotence of God."

What does it mean to fulfil the law? The following quotations from the Bible seem to answer this question fully. In his epistle to the Romans, Paul says, "Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Again, he says to the Galatians, "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;" "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." In the epistle of James we read, "If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well." Then the very substance of law itself is based upon this one word, namely, love, and if there were enough love manifested between men there would be no need of either mandatory or prohibitory provisions; no need for codes and statutes, for every one would be seeking the universal happiness of all mankind instead of his own selfish interests. But this word "love" must have a higher and more spiritual meaning than that commonly accepted. It must lift the human thought to the contemplation of something higher than itself and to an altitude and atmosphere where it can see only God's reflection.

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