Editorial January 18, 1969 Issue

How Love Governs Governments

Helen Wood Bauman

From the human standpoint, a government is the ultimate source of authority, or at least it appears to be. But a just, intelligent, and merciful government reflects the higher authority of God, who provides the moral and spiritual standards that make a government righteous. So it is God, or good, to whom men should turn in seeking to establish a right government or to improve the one already established.

It is a sad thing to hear that courts are sometimes less than just and that legislatures are weak through political bias and selfish interests. Students of Christian Science are in a position to help improve governments. They have accepted the revelation that God is Love, or divine Principle, and that Love is the true, governing authority of the universe. They realize that any departure from wisdom or mercy or justice is illusion and must be metaphysically, or prayerfully, dealt with as such.

Mary Baker Eddy says, "Divine Love reforms, regenerates, giving to human weakness strength, serving as admonition, instruction, and governing all that really is."^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 287;} A little later she adds, "Love lived in a court or cot is God exemplified, governing governments, industries, human rights, liberty, life."