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 They can never be repealed, never abrogated.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.

What, then, of lack? How may one apply God's law to overcome this pernicious claim? God's unchanging law understood and obeyed becomes in human experience a law of abundant supply, ever available, and adequate to meet every human need. One may, with the utmost confidence, affirm and know that there is always available ample provision for every right demand. One cannot limit Love, for "God is love," as John declares, and the outpouring of divine, inexhaustible Love goes on continually. We have, therefore, only to avail ourselves of the affluence of divine Love to meet our every need. Our Leader says in her "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 307): "What a glorious inheritance is given to us through the understanding of omnipresent Love! More we cannot ask: more we do not want: more we cannot have. This sweet assurance is the 'Peace, be still' to all human fears, to suffering of every sort."

Sickness may be said to be a false accusation against man, and when God's infallible law is applied in human experience, this false accusation is annulled and man's true being as the image and likeness of God is proved. We must refuse to accept as law the claims of mortal mind that man can be sick; that the body can be diseased, bruised, broken, swollen, inflamed, or stricken with fever. The divine law of harmony, rightly applied, renders null and void the so-called material laws presuming to hold sway.

What, then, shall be said when one has struggled long and perhaps unsuccessfully to overcome some serious physical ill? Has God's unchanging law failed? No! God's law cannot fail. Some fetters of false belief claim to be holding one in bondage. Perhaps the fetters of fear, doubt, discouragement, dishonesty, distrust, procrastination, hatred, resentment, or belief in laws of heredity may yet have to be uncovered and destroyed. In music one cannot deviate from the rules of harmony and produce a pleasing blending of tones. Neither should one accept as real any of the false laws of mortal belief, if one wants to overcome the beliefs of sickness, sin, or discord. God's undeviating law of health, wholeness, and right activity is available now. Right where discord and sickness seem to be, one should know that God's ever-operative law of harmony is present, proclaiming that God is All-in-all, and that man is His immortal, indestrucible, and perfect expression, His divine image and likeness, and that he is whole and harmonious now.

The great Way-shower, Christ Jesus, healed all manner of disease because he understood and demonstrated God's unalterable and ever-operative law of health and harmony. He fed the multitudes and provided the necessary tax money for himself and his disciples, because he knew and demonstrated God's ever-present law, which provides abundant supply. He raised from death the widow's son, the daughter of Jairus, and his own dear friend Lazarus, and because he understood and demonstrated God's immutable law of Life he himself stepped forth from the rock-ribbed tomb. Because they understood and demonstrated God's unfailing law of freedom Paul and Silas were released from prison.

In our own time a pure and noble New England gentlewoman, Mary Baker Eddy, discovered God's unchanging law of life and harmony. After putting her discovery to the severest possible test through the healing of the sick and the sinful, she gave to the world in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," a clear and concise statement of this law and its rules of application. Then, that it might not again be lost to the world, she devoted her life to the teaching and demonstration of the Science of these laws. That this teaching might remain clear and unobscured she established the Church of Christ, Scientist, taking steps, as she was led, "to organize a church designed to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing" (Manual, p. 17).

As the Ten Commandments were an unfailing guide to the children of Israel in their journey through the wilderness, so today the omnipresent, omnipotent, and unchanging law of God is ever available to meet the needs of mankind.