Article April 27, 1929 Issue

The True Law

WILLIAM COLWELL BARTLETT

In its revelation of the truths of being, Christian Science begins with the fundamental proposition that God, divine Principle, is the origin or source of all that exists. Mrs. Eddy has succinctly summarized this in the statement found in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 275), "The starting-point of divine Science is that God, Spirit, is All-in-all, and that there is no other might nor Mind,—that God is Love, and therefore He is divine Principle."

With this premise established, thought naturally proceeds to the Scriptural correlative in the first chapter of Genesis, "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." Since God is the creator, His creation, the universe, cannot be other than good; and since He is Spirit, creation must be wholly spiritual. Moreover, since God is All-in-all, the conclusion is inescapable that His creation, which expresses Him, is complete. In God's creation there is therefore no discordant or destructive element, since He is infinite Life and the universe eternally reflects Him. If God's government were not harmonious, creation would be chaotic. Our Leader shows this to be impossible in her statement on page 295 of Science and Health: "God creates and governs the universe, including man. The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind that makes them."

In its claim to reverse and to repeat materially the spiritual facts of creation, error—that is, the mortal or carnal mind—asserts many things in opposition to the spiritual facts as enunciated by Christian Science. Among the claims of error is the oft-repeated statement that "self-preservation is the first law of nature." In seeming exemplification of this spurious law we find mortals expressing greed, avarice, dishonesty, theft, and murder—all these evils originating in the belief that the universe is material and its inhabitants mortal, each one depending for his life and well-being upon his greater or lesser ability to appropriate material things for his enhancement and sustenance. Such an asserted law and its obvious consequences must of necessity imply government by fear; and we see the resulting claim of error expressed in lack, inharmony, disease, and death.

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