Editorial July 13, 1935 Issue

Obedience

Violet Ker Seymer

The premise of obedience is God's government of His image. This quality expresses man's reflection of the one Mind. "Obedience," Mrs. Eddy tells us (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 117), "is the offspring of Love; and Love is the Principle of unity, the basis of all right thinking and acting; it fulfils the law." How necessary, then, that every Christian Scientist should see obedience in its relation to divine Principle and law! Each one should recognize the naturalness of obedience and prove at every point that God's image is eternally governed by the law of life and health, intelligence, harmony, and affluence. Man is incapable of any deflection from divine Love; his obedience to divine Principle is established in and by Principle and is irreversible.

Disobedience, then, from the scientific standpoint, is nonexistent. Were it possible for God's image to cease expressing perfection, it would be within his power to separate himself from cause in order to become disobedient. In that case, God would be less than infinite, less than supreme. Christian Science destroys the sinful belief in disobedience even as it destroys disease, fear, lack, and all other presumptuous beliefs of the carnal mind. The claim of disobedience is a libel against God's infinite manifestation of Himself, and this libelous belief is destroyed through the practice of Christian Science.

Our Leader writes (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 26), "Our great Way-shower, steadfast to the end in his obedience to God's laws, demonstrated for all time and peoples the supremacy of good over evil, and the superiority of Spirit over matter." Only through obedience to Spirit and spiritual law is it possible to gain dominion over mortal mind and matter. Jesus' obedience to spiritual law carried with it power, authority, proof. It enabled him to deliver Lazarus from the grave and Mary Magdalene from immorality. Demonstrating his obedience to the law of health, intelligence, and supply, Christ Jesus healed the infirmities of the multitude, restored mental soundness to many, and fed hungry throngs in the desert. Jesus' own implicit obedience to God enabled him to do these works.

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