Editorial March 26, 1960 Issue

HEAVEN AND LAW

Helen Wood Bauman

Christ Jesus said of heaven, "It is God's throne" (Matt. 5:34). Because throne denotes sovereignty, one should think of heaven in terms of God's authority and of His government in terms of His just and merciful law. In Christian Science one learns that to achieve salvation from the mortal sense of life, with its pains and sorrows and sins, one must find his place in heaven through obedience to divine law. In fact, one is in heaven now in the measure of his obedience to that law. Because one does not die in order to be thus obedient, one does not die in order to enter heaven.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus linked heaven with obedience when he said of the Ten Commandments (verse 19), "Whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." This greatest of all sermons is a profound dissertation on law; it sets forth the essence of God's law, the spirit in which it must be obeyed if heaven is to be attained. The Master was always in heaven because on no occasion did he fail to obey divine law. He understood God's law in all its truth and might, and he demonstrated its full control of his life.

In our age, Mary Baker Eddy lifted the understanding of law to its absolute meaning when she discovered Christian Science, for this Science is veritable law, the spiritual force by which. God, Spirit, expresses Himself. Law, to be actual, must be a force, energy, or power that acts constantly to produce effect. Divine law cannot be broken, because it is God's will, the constant purposeful energy of divine Mind, which acts to create, perpetuate, and control the realm of reality— the kingdom of heaven.

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