Editorial December 25, 1915 Issue

Law and Life

John B. Willis

In no more important particular and way is Christian Science transforming the thought of the world today than in awakening a new and true sense of law and of its relation both to the infinite Life and to the life of man. In Jeremiah it is said of the world's spiritual renaissance, "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel . . . I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people." The inauguration of this spiritual kingdom is registered for the individual when and in so far as he becomes amenable to divine law. As the realization of the true significance of the reign of law to life dawns upon uplifted sense, the cry of the psalmist, "O how love I thy law!" thus becomes the all-encompassing outflow of a great tide of redemptive thought.

It is probably true that the majority of men, and possibly of professed Christians, think of law as something that limits freedom; they look upon it as coercive and contracting. Though reckoned to be necessary, perhaps "a good thing" for the inconsiderate and the impulsive, it is regarded, not as a stimulus and support, but as voicing demands and requirements, as redemptive by restraint. This sense of the nature of law naturally begets the effort to escape its penalty, but not to rejoice in its rule. There is, moreover, a very large body of people who insist that they will not honor any law but the will to be and to do. Even some whom the world has classed as philosophers deprecate every conventionality which, as they say, hedges in personal liberty. There is a school of artists who definitely champion the assertion that no man can achieve any great art work until he has "let himself go," until he has escaped from everything that would fetter impulse!

Christian Science is again asserting that "the law of the Lord is perfect;" that it is the law of man, and that the recognition of this perfect natural law does convert "the soul," the prevailing sense of life, its privilege and its power. More than this, it is enabling men to see and to prove, as the great prophet declared, that "out of Zion," this redeemed sense, "shall go forth the law;" that the true, effective Christian delights in and demonstrates conformity to law in all his every-day words and activities as he goes about among men. This may be said to be the great practical theme of all of Mrs. Eddy's teaching, and the glory of the healing work which has been accomplished through the apprehension of the Christ, Truth. Indeed, as we read in Science and Health (p. 128), "the term Science, properly understood, refers only to the laws of God and to His government of the universe." Every rejoicing, therefore, that springs to the lips of those who have been saved from sickness and sin is a witness, a glad tribute to the reign of Love's law, for this in Science is the meaning of law, the ever beneficent activity of Love.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Law and Life

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access