IF the Bible makes anything within its lids emphatic it is obedience to the statutes and the commandments of God. Out from amidst the thunderings and lightnings of Sinai came the first and supreme commandment: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." This commandment is emphatic, majestic, all-comprehensive. Its mood is at once indicative, potential, imperative; its tense, both present and future. Yet it was as true when uttered as it is to-day or ever will be. Nay, it was true before Moses was, and before the "morning stars sang together." The Bible says it, because it is true, but it would be true if the Bible had not said it. It embraces all the elements of authoritative and imperative command and infinitely more, for it is absolute truth.

This truth is declared throughout the Scriptures. In Deuteronomy, 6 : 17, we find it re-affirmed thus: "Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes."

Note the words "shall" and "diligently." No room for saying, "I may keep the commandments when I feel like it, or when it is convenient." No room for slothful or sleepy or indifferent keeping. No room for half-doing, to say nothing of no doing; but diligently shall the law of God be kept. Only thus can the practical and beneficial results follow. There is no compromise, no easy middle ground; there are no pleasant by-ways. The law is immutable, inflexible, inexorable. Why? Because it is founded in absolute justice. No other law would suffice the ends of absolute justice. This mighty universe could be conducted on no other basis. It could be controlled by no other form of government. Absolute justice is an attribute of infinite Love. That which is based in eternal good will work out the ends of universal right. This Love is tender, compassionate, kind, notwithstanding all human evidence to the contrary. But the requirements of that Love which is ever just must be met. Not otherwise can we become its beneficiaries. Herein divine Love differs from that human sentiment which is accounted human love.

Another re-affirmation of the great commandment is in Deuteronomy, 6 : 5, "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." Imperative, uncompromising, rigid, yet the outflow of infinite Love. Jesus, the greatest demonstrator of Love, the best expression of Love ever appearing in human form, was wont to repeat these exact words throughout his ministry. They formed the basis of all his healing of sickness and sin. They entered into the warp and woof of the Sermon on the Mount. They constituted his chart and compass in all his acts.

Another re-affirmation is in Leviticus, 26 : 3, 4, 6, 7, 12: "If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit." These very practical results will follow; but more: "And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. . . .

And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword... And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people." These are among the infinitely glorious results of obedience. What of the results of disobedience? Here are some of them: "But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; and if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it." Here are the two ways distinctly marked. Here the assured rewards of obedience, and the no less certain results of disobedience. Well may we say, Walk ye in the straight way and reap the sweet results thereof; or walk in the crooked way and suffer the direful consequences.

Has the history of the world proved the truth of this Scripture, or has it not? We need only glance at its annals to find our answer. Literally, exactly, undeviatingly, have these Scriptures been verified down through the ages; and they are being daily verified in this age. They will so continue until the "statutes and the commandments" have been fully obeyed. Let us glance at Nature's law, so-called. How strictly must it be obeyed in order to obtain good results. How exactly obedient must the agriculturist be if he is to meet with success. He must literally obey the statutes and keep the commandments. He must carefully prepare his ground, fertilizing it, cultivating it, keeping out weeds and all deleterious elements. He must be in season, watchful, diligent, looking ahead and anticipating his enemies,—the insects, the destructive animals,—and thwarting their purposes. He must move in advance of all destructive things or suffer the consequences of failure of crop, disaster, poverty. He may sleep during necessary hours, but the remainder of the time he must be wide awake.

And the successful mechanic, how diligently must he obey the statutes and the commandments of mechanics. Slothfulness or indifference are to him impossible. So all along the line of human activities. Vigilance, obedience, unceasing care, are the essentials of success. The law governing here must be inexorable, or failure, disaster, ruin follow.

Shall God's law be less exact, less imperative? Shall spiritual demands be less rigid, less methodical, less scientific? May the professor of spiritual truth shamble along in any sort of fashion, obeying its statutes and its commandments when it suits his purposes, otherwise not? If he does observe only this kind of obedience has he any right to expect the results of rightful obedience? Does he hope, through partial, spasmodic, and convenient obedience, or even through no obedience, to reap the reward due only to the truly obedient? If so, he deludes himself, and the sooner he awakens from his false dream, the sooner will he see the utter folly of this course, the failure of his hopes.

Fellow Scientists, are we sufficiently awake to the absolute necessity of obeying the statutes and the commandments? Do we exercise the same relative watchfulness and vigilance as do the good farmer and the good mechanic? Are we sufficiently anticipating the modes and methods of deleterious and hurtful things and defeating them? Are we sufficiently preparing and cultivating our spiritual soil? Is it true obedience to wait until sickness and disaster come, and then undertake to cope with the results? Have we not helps enough to enable us to obey the statutes and the commandments? We have distinct, explicit, and abundant helps. We have, moreover, constantly before us the bright and shining example of our Leader, who for more than thirty years has been faithfully and untiringly pointing the way and beckoning us on to that full obedience which would bring blessings and benefits. Will we avail ourselves of the helps? will we follow the light and the example set us? or will we sleep on until calamity, disaster, and disease come, and then murmur because we are afflicted and wonder why Truth is not kinder to us?

God sends upon us no calamity. It comes through slothfulness, disobedience, and sin; in short, through failure and neglect to obey the statutes and the commandments.

In simple and almost pathetic tones, Israel (and Israel is but a term for all mankind) is exhorted to obedience, in Deuteronomy, 10 : 12: "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?"

And what does our text-book require of us but obedience to God in all His ways? And what do our Church Tenets require of us but earnestly to "strive, watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to love one another; and to be meek, merciful, just, and pure"? (Science and Health, p. 497).

What more could they require, on earth or in heaven, for our good? And yet they require exactly what is implied in the reiterated Biblical injunction to obey the statutes and the commandments; nothing more, nothing less.