Article August 11, 1923 Issue

God's Government

CLARA E. MC KENZIE

It is interesting and inspiring to trace the thought of God's government throughout the Bible. We have in the record of spiritual creation, in the first chapter of Genesis, the first command of God, "Let there be light: and there was light;" and with this light, or understanding, God's creation was revealed as perfect and complete, expressing only good. We find God speaking and revealing His law in all ages to those whose thought is pure enough to receive it. The patriarchs talked with God. At other times He revealed His purpose to them in various ways that they could understand. Moses, the Hebrew leader, frequently communed with God throughout his life; and it is recorded of him at the close of his earthly mission that "his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated." This, obviously, was the result of his communion with God. To Moses were revealed the Ten Commandments, which to-day form the basis of the governments of the most enlightened nations and the foundation of their just laws.

The children of Israel, when obeying the Ten Commandments, were directly governed by God; and this form of government continued up to the time of Samuel. Through the thoughts of the prophets, the men of God, the more enlightened method of human procedure was from time to time revealed to the children of Israel. Samuel was the last of these seers before the advent of the kings.

In the twelfth chapter of I Samuel is a record of Samuel's reasoning with the children of Israel, where he shows them clearly how God had prospered them when they turned to Him, and how, when they turned away from Him to their own strength and human outlining, their enemies were successful over them; and he goes on to point out, "Ye said unto me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us: when the Lord your God was your king." Saul became their king; and from that time to the time of Christ Jesus the Hebrews, as a people, looked principally to a human ruler. Jesus came reiterating the teachings of Moses, turning the thoughts of men away from a sense of material government to the rule of Spirit, bringing to heartsick humanity an understanding of God's eternal law and revealing man as the image and likeness of God and under God's law. Jesus came in an age of dense materialism. Mrs. Eddy expresses this and contrasts his teaching with his times on page 473 of our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," in these words: "In an age of ecclesiastical despotism, Jesus introduced the teaching and practice of Christianity, affording the proof of Christianity's truth and love." Had Jesus bowed to the desire of the Jews that he become their king, they would not have cried out for his crucifixion. That, however, would have annulled his teaching that men must become pure and receptive to Truth, even as the thought of the child, so as to perceive and follow God's directing law. He himself demonstrated God's government in every detail of his life, even to his final victory over all material conditions, in the resurrection and ascension.

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