Asked to explain the meaning of the third commandment, a mother pondered before replying. Heretofore she had considered the commandment, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain," to mean nothing more than a warning that no one may profanely use the name of God. It had seemed unlikely that she would break, or be tempted to transgress, this law and she had given it little thought.

Now, however, she began to search for another, perhaps deeper meaning to help the child, who had been brought up to reverence and hallow the name of God.

In the Bible we read how inharmonious conditions were overcome, how God's power was proved, when spiritually-minded individuals called upon the name of the Lord. With divine authority they cast out erroneous suggestions of ill-health, of sin or of lack, just as a judge may pass sentence on a lawbreaker in the name of justice. They proved that whenever one sincerely called upon the name of God, with prayer and understanding, harmony was realized; in other words, no one called in vain.

In Isaiah we read, "Bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth: even every one that is called by my name." One Bible dictionary says that "name" "signifies any thing whereby his nature and will is made better known to us." Man, then, is bound to live up to his wonderful, Godlike nature. How careful we, who recognize this sonship, must be never to take our Father's name vainly, or in vain!

In taking the name of the Lord, man is acknowledging all that the name "God" implies. It is essential for him to do so. In answer to the question, "What is God?" Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 465), "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul. Principle, Life, Truth, Love."

As the image and likeness of God, man's true identity is forever reflecting all that these terms indicate. He expresses incorporeality, and therefore remains untouched by any material suggestions of bodily harm; he cannot be injured by accident, by a bullet or a bomb. Nothing material can in any way affect the expression of the one divine Supreme Being.

The image of infinite Mind is always intelligent and wise. As the likeness of Spirit, the real man must be spiritual, never material. He is not conveyed by train, ship, or airplane; is never enclosed in a submarine nor locked in a prison camp. Representing Soul, he is not bound by the limitations of the five corporeal senses. As the creation of Principle, he is not a creator. As the offspring of Life, man cannot experience death. As the expression of Truth, he can never know or express a lie in any form. Fear and cowardice cannot claim him. As the child of Love, he is untouched by any sense of hate, but can know, give, and accept only love.

This, then, is what it means to be called by the name of God, to be His child. No matter what appears to be happening in the world today, no matter what mortal mind suggests of war, ill-health, and in-harmonies, the true man, the man of God's creating, retains his splendid position as the perfect child of God. If however, we allow the fear of inharmony to influence us in any way, are we not taking the name of God in vain? Are we not failing to recognize man's true nature and sonship with God?

In Proverbs we read. "Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full, and deny thee, and say. Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain."

The author of these arresting lines evidently realized that, in order to avoid taking the name of the Lord vainly, he must have the wisdom to discriminate between the true and the false; to see through the thin wash of vanity and deceit which would beguile one into accepting material attractions and pleasures in place of the beauty of Soul and spiritual joys. He desires "neither poverty nor riches." In other words, man has in Truth all that is good. There is nothing more and nothing less to have.

By recognizing man as purely spiritual one can know that he is the recipient of "food convenient," of spiritual substance and sustenance. This knowledge has proved beneficial to those who appeared to lack necessary food. The manna which fed the Israelite? in the wilderness, the meat provided for Elijah at a time of famine, the fish and bread which Jesus gave to the five thousand, are only three of the cases mentioned in the Bible which prove that in so far as we realize that man is always receiving his rightful nutriment there can be no lack in our experience. We can help not only ourselves, but others, to dispel the lying suggestions that drought or flood, bombardment, invasion, lack of transport, or any other so-called reason, can deprive us of "food convenient" for us.

Acknowledging God as the Giver of all blessings, let us accept gratefully the third commandment as a firm statement of a wonderful fact: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." For man, God's child, this would be impossible.

We can at this moment claim man's at-one-ment with God, take His name and accept joyfully all that this entails of reflecting His nature. We can obey the third commandment and also the behest of our Leader (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 225): "Christian Science names God as divine Principle, Love, the infinite Person. In this, as in all that is right, Christian Scientists are expected to stick to their text, and by no illogical conclusion, either in speaking or in writing, to forget their prayer, 'Hallowed be Thy name.'"