Editorial September 23, 1922 Issue

Truth Orderly

Albert F. Gilmore

WHEN Pope declared that "order is heaven's first law," he stated a fundamental fact of the universe. Mrs. Eddy was so greatly impressed with the truth of this saying that she wrote in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 87), "The poet's line, 'Order is heaven's first law,' is so eternally true, so axiomatic, that it has become a truism; and its wisdom is as obvious in religion and scholarship as in astronomy or mathematics." Job spoke of the condition succeeding death as the "land of darkness" and "without any order," recognizing that apart from the reign of God, who is infinite Life, order does not obtain.

Astronomers tell us of the orderliness of the heavenly bodies, which swing their great circles through boundless space with a precision little short of perfection. In the nearby kingdoms of the earth, whether it be the animal, vegetable, or mineral, a similar round of orderliness is observed; yet in all these phases of the so-called material universe there is a degree of variation from the accepted laws sufficient to indicate, yes, even to prove, that all fall something short of that perfect law which alone is of God. In this semblance of order, the Christian Scientist finds a counterfeit of the true orderliness, which pertains only to divine Mind; for he learns in this Science that as there is but one creator of a perfect universe, so there is but one law, His law, without flaw, without variableness or "shadow of turning," governing this infinite creation with perfect precision. Moreover, it inevitably follows that a perfect universe, which is spiritual and infinite, governed by God's unchanging law, precludes the possibility of another universe, the counterfeit or hypothetical opposite of the true creation, governed by its own concept of law, claiming the dominion of God's perfect law. Conversely, the belief of a material universe with its complexity of seeming laws rightly understood is the waymark which points to the true creation,—God and His infinite expression, including man. For, manifestly, without the real, which is spiritual, there could not even seem to arise a claim of or belief in its supposititious opposite, materiality with its world of falsity. Under the heading, "Waymarks to eternal Truth," on page 267 of our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," we read: "When examined in the light of divine Science, mortals present more than is detected upon the surface, since inverted thoughts and erroneous beliefs must be counterfeits of Truth. Thought is borrowed from a higher source than matter, and by reversal, errors serve as waymarks to the one Mind, in which all error disappears in celestial Truth."

It must have been the orderly law of Truth about which the psalmist declared that a man delights to "meditate day and night." Surely, it was not upon a disorderly, changeable, and unscientific round of events, to the contemplation of which he would so assiduously apply himself as to continue in its meditation unceasingly. In the familiar expression, "law and order," it is observed that order is conceived to be the outcome of the operation of law, the manifestation of power expressed in a regular and orderly manner. Browning caught a glimpse at least of God, divine Love, operating always in accordance with His will when he declared, "All's love, but all's law." The only unchangeable law which governs in perfect order and harmony the universe of spiritual ideas, the true universe, is God's eternal law. On page 275 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy has set forth in a single sentence the method whereby the orderliness of Truth is gained: "To grasp the reality and order of being in its Science, you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Principle of all that really is." God operates only through His perfect law, expressive of order, unchanging throughout all eternity.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

Church Building