Article March 30, 1935 Issue

Law and Liberty

ANNIE M. KNOTT

To most people the thought of law implies restriction, when instead we should at least think of law as protection; and as we gain a clearer sense of the infinite Lawgiver, divine Mind, we shall understand that obedience to God's law brings freedom at all times and under all circumstances. In the book of The Acts we read that on one occasion St. Paul was arrested under Roman law, on complaint of his own people; but he was spared the ordeal of scourging when he claimed that he was "free born." In a larger sense and at a later date he gave to his contemporaries, and to the oncoming centuries, the rousing declaration of law and liberty which covers all human need. It is in the eighth chapter of Romans, and reads as follows: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."

At this point we may remind ourselves that the healing ministry of Christian Science is in accordance with divine law and order, and means the annulment of the asserted laws of disease and death, of want and woe, indeed of all evil. Most people would hesitate to charge directly to God the making of disease laws, but would claim that such asserted laws were nature's laws, as, for instance, in cases of so-called contagion and epidemics. In her "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 258) Mrs. Eddy says, "In the spiritual Genesis of creation, all law was vested in the Lawgiver, who was a law to Himself." On the next page we read: "Whatever appears to be law, but partakes not of the nature of God, is not law, but is what Jesus declared it, 'a liar, and the father of it.' God is the law of Life, not of death; of health, not of sickness; of good, not of evil."

In our study of the Bible we naturally and properly think of Moses as the great Hebrew lawgiver. The Psalmist says that God "made known his ways unto Moses." Moses undoubtedly gave to his people all that he was ready to give and they were ready to receive. The Mosaic law, if taken apart from forms and ceremonies, might be epitomized in these words as given by Jesus to a lawyer who was arguing with him: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Again and again did Moses assure his people that when they obeyed the divine law they would be free from sickness, and that prosperity would attend their unfoldment as a people. We should never forget that the divine law is neither annulled nor outgrown, and that today it applies to all men and all nations; and as Moses required that the children should be diligently taught God's law, so today the smallest child can be taught that God is Love and loves us and cares for us, and that because of this we should love others as ourselves, and thus find freedom and happiness.

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