The Commandments

FREDDA R. GRATKE

On a wall in one of our Christian Science branch churches appears the first command of the Decalogue, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." One Wednesday evening, struggling with a sense of physical discord, the writer, upon entering the church, allowed her thought to dwell upon that commandment. Suddenly the word "shalt" stood out with a marvelous new significance, as a glorious promise rather than as the somewhat stern command it had hitherto always seemed to be. As a wave of joy flooded consciousness with the realization of the magnitude of that promise, all sense of the discord vanished.

"Thou shalt have no other gods"! Could a promise be more glorious? We are to be enabled to know that there is no power apart from God; nor can any seeming power have dominion over us. Freedom from belief in and fear of other powers,—of sin, of sickness, of lack,—this freedom is our rightful heritage, promised by a loving God. We shall, ultimately, have no other gods, no bondage to false sense, no clinging to erroneous thought-habits, no fear of evil.

As the commandment took on this new and beautiful meaning, even the reason for the statement which precedes the Commandments in the twentieth chapter of Exodus became clearer: "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." "I am"—the name by which the nature of Deity was revealed to Moses, the one Mind, all-good, all-acting, all-beneficent Mind, the only God, the only governing power in our lives! What words can express the gratitude and joy such a realization awakens! The promise is for the present, and is fulfilled in proportion to our understanding of the real nature and presence of God, and the recognition that it is God, good, that forgives all our iniquities, that heals all our diseases.

Just so long, however, as mankind remains in ignorance of what God is, just so long will the fulfillment of the promise of freedom from the bondage to material law be delayed. So in the statement which precedes the Commandments we are bidden first to recognize and understand God, who alone leads us out of the land of Egypt, out of the darkness of human agony, before we can avail ourselves of His ever present law of harmony and reap the blessings promised. A glorious revelation of the true nature of God has been given to the world in Christian Science, so that mankind may recognize the availability of the one power, since God must be understood as well as believed.

On page 465 of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," there appears this wonderful definition of God: "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love." Think for a moment of God as infinite Mind, infinite Life, infinite Truth, infinite Love! The Mind that is infinite must be that divine Mind which fills all space, and which can take no cognizance of matter or material sense, Mind's opposite. Life that is infinite can know no death or aught that could result in death, such as sickness, sin, accident. Truth that is infinite is absolute in its nature, and in it nothing erroneous could exist. And it is Truth which uncovers and annihilates all unlike itself, even as a flood of light annihilates the darkness. Love that is infinite is measureless, boundless, impartial, constant. It is this Love which creates and maintains its creation; and this Love is God. God who is infinite Mind, Life, Truth, and Love, is the God we acknowledge as the great I AM, and whom we obey and love.

In speaking of the Mind which is God Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 503): "This Mind creates no element nor symbol of discord and decay. God creates neither erring thought, mortal life, mutable truth, nor variable love." Therefore, the man whom God creates is the man who is defined in our textbook (p. 475) as "that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker." It is the recognition of this true concept of spiriutal man and his unity with the creator, in contradistinction to what appears to mortals as frail, sinful, discordant mortal man, that is the basis for trust in God's promises.

Because the discords of sense are no part of spiritual creation and are but the manifestations of the false concepts of mortals, the right concept held in consciousness dispels that which would hide man's perfect unity with God. In the light of this truth about God and man, how easy and how joyous a thing it is to know and love His law, and to trust and obey His commands!

Think of the third commandment, which begins, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." What a promise is this! We shall never call upon God when we understand His true nature, without having our prayers answered. "Before they call, I will answer," we read in Isaiah. How the Commandments, so interpreted, sing in our hearts! And when the clouds of sense, manifested either in physical discord or in some persistent error, seem stubborn to overcome and would discourage us, how these blessed promises hearten and cheer us, so that we can look up to our dear Father-Mother God with a gratitude so deep and a joy so full that the storms of error are stilled, and consciousness is filled with the peace that passes understanding!

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