Article January 20, 1940 Issue

Sunday School Notes and Comments

[From the Editor's Table in The Christian Science Journal of April, 1894]

"The Mosaic Decalogue has lost none of its significance by lapse of time. It means as much to-day as it ever meant. It was written for time and for eternity. There is deep significance in the fact of its having been written on tablets of stone. This symbolizes its permanency and endless duration. It was written for all mankind. . . .

"As commonly interpreted it [the Decalogue] has been made the basis of human laws. The jurisprudence of civilized nations is based largely upon it. Men have made it the foundation wall upon which the fabric of human affairs has been built. It is an essential part of human history, and will continue to be as long as human history endures. ... It may be of benefit to consider for a little while the meaning and effect of its first article, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' No one can understandingly read 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,' by the Rev. Mary B. G. Eddy, without seeing that it has its basis in this statement of the Decalogue. . . . Let us observe that its language is in the imperative mode. Thou shalt. There is nothing equivocal about these words. They are absolute, peremptory, authoritative The next word is, Have. Thou shalt have. To have is to possess. Therefore, Thou shalt possess, what? without exception 'no other gods before me.' Every word of this divine statute is in the imperative. There is not the slightest modification of its majestic tone.

"And why is it that "thou shalt have no other gods'? For the overwhelming reason that thou canst have no other. There is no other to have, to possess. Mortal man may flatter himself that he can have other gods, — all sorts of gods. He may set up in his puny imagination his gods of wood and stone, of iron, of brass, of silver and of gold; he may fancy he can make a god of his or another's corporeality, of the almighty dollar, of fame and fortune, — but the divine law is that after all his puerile effort, he can possess, as the real fact of his Being, only the God of Divine Science, the Principle of all true Being."

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