Article October 27, 1923 Issue

The First Commandment

FLORENCE A. HOYT

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Christian Science is founded on this first and greatest commandment. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 340) Mrs. Eddy, in speaking of this commandment, says: "It signifies that man shall have no other spirit or mind but God, eternal good, and that all men shall have one Mind. The divine Principle of the First Commandment bases the Science of being, by which man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal." No one can understandingly read this book without discerning that it has its firm and secure foundation in that statement of the Decalogue; and so it is with all of Mrs. Eddy's other works.

One of the most erroneous forms of error indulged by mankind is the worship of the so-called mortal body. To worship this, in the sense of giving it power or dominion, is to have a god other than the one God. Every concept of life, power, and intelligence in matter and apart from God is included in such worship. We can see, therefore, that in proportion as we keep before us this Me, which is Spirit, the living God, the great I AM, we shall bring out and prove the infallible law of "no other gods before me," Spirit. Whatever the problem may be, the great fact remains that God is the only power. Therefore, we must not attribute power to any other supposititious source. The practical application of the First Commandment is a complete repudiation of the talking serpent of error, which says, Ye shall be as gods if ye but believe that life is in the body, and worship it.

At a time when an earnest student of Christian Science was passing through what seemed to be deep waters of tribulation, she constantly anchored her thought upon the First Commandment. Each day it became clearer that the argument for other gods was but a negation; and thereby she proved to some extent the allness of the one God.

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