Article October 19, 1935 Issue

God's Unchanging Law

LYMAN S. ABBOTT

God's laws are unchanging and unchangeable. They can never be repealed, never abrogated. Man, created in God's image and likeness, is subject only to the laws of God. He can never escape from the operation of those laws. God being everywhere present, His laws are likewise everywhere present and always operative. "Whither shall I flee from thy presence?" questions the Psalmist in the beautiful one hundred and thirty-ninth Psalm; and then he immediately declares God's ever-presence: "If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me."

But what of the discords of mortal existence, such as sickness, accident, death? Mary Baker Eddy answers this question succinctly in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 253), where she writes: "Do not believe in any supposed necessity for sin, disease, or death, knowing (as you ought to know) that God never requires obedience to a so-called material law, for no such law exists. The belief in sin and death is destroyed by the law of God, which is the law of Life instead of death, of harmony instead of discord, of Spirit instead of the flesh."

But someone may ask, If God's law is ever present and ever operative, why does mankind seem to experience so much misery and suffering? Let us suppose one were to go to a store and purchase several items of merchandise, hand the clerk a sum of money, and put the change into his purse without either totaling the bill or counting the change. In such a case one might very easily become the victim of carelessness, confusion, mistakes, or even dishonesty. But if one first applies correctly the ever-operative rules of mathematics, figures his bill for himself, and carefully determines the amount of change he should receive, he is protected from these errors. In like manner, it is necessary that we know and consciously and correctly apply God's undeviating, ever-present, and ever-operative law in our own affairs in order to protect ourselves from ill-health, accident, discord, confusion, lack, or any of the myriad beliefs of evil which would try to rob us of our divine heritage of freedom and dominion.

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