Editorial June 3, 1950 Issue

THE LAW OF COMPENSATION

Robert Ellis Key

When reading the Scriptures one cannot help being impressed by the number of instances recorded in which loss of some description is followed by restoration. An instance of this is the story of the Shunammite woman whose son died and was raised from the dead by the prophet Elisha. The story of Job is another well-known instance of restoration following quickly upon loss and deprivation. We are told (Job 42: 10), "And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before."

It is clear from a study of the subject of restoration or compensation as given in the Bible and referred to in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy that restoration results from the operation of natural spiritual law and is always to be found when implicit obedience to the law of God is given.

Mrs. Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 107), "In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and named my discovery Christian Science." Restoration or compensation is enforced by the law of divine Love, for one of the offices of Love, to human sense, is to restore and compensate. She also writes in her chapter, on the Apocalypse, when referring to Revelation 21:9 (ibid., p. 574), "The beauty of this text is, that the sum total of human misery, represented by the seven angelic vials full of seven plagues, has full compensation in the law of Love."