Editorial January 22, 1966 Issue

Law-abiding Man

Helen Wood Bauman

Everything in the teaching of our religion points to the fact that man is not a lawless mortal but a law-created, law-governed, and law-abiding son of God. Actually, man, God's image, has appeared only in the measure that God's law has been revealed and obeyed.

But what is law? Is it comprised of human statutes, which might apply to one generation and not to another? Or is law the undeviating force of Spirit, which had to be discovered? Christian Science explains that real law is the energy of good, which governs the mind and heart of those who recognize the value of good. In absolute being, where nothing exists but God and His spiritual creation, divine law is in ceaseless control of all. Once this truth is understood, it gradually overcomes the destructive energy of evil that would govern mankind negatively, without intelligence or compassion.

The criminal would let the energy of evil govern his mind and action to the extent that he is willing to murder and steal in order to satisfy his uninhibited materialism. But anyone who hates another is a murderer in a degree. And anyone who persuades another to disregard moral standards, which are based upon respect for others, is stealing that individual's integrity—is corrupting him. Crime should be recognized in this broader aspect and thwarted.

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