Law implies order, and it has been well said that "order is Heaven's first law." It is inconceivable that man and the universe could have been created contrary to definite supreme law, or could be maintained without it. It must be accepted as a truism that the Maker of all is necessarily able and willing to take care of all His creation. To assert any other theory is to question the goodness and the omnipotence of the creator. Where, then, shall rest the responsibility for the discordant conditions attending human experience, unless we accept the statement of the Preacher, "God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions."

Mrs. Eddy defines God in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 465) as "incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love." Each of these synonyms is complete within itself, yet it requires the complement of all the others to make each one of them fully understood. Students of Christian Science feel that the term "Principle" conveys a very satisfying idea of God's nature. Certainly it has a peculiarly profound meaning when considered in connection with the other synonyms for God given by Mrs. Eddy. For instance, the realization that Love and Principle are the same at once destroys any thought of Principle as being cold and abstract. The careful reader will note that our Leader does not say that God is a principle; instead, she defines Him as "Principle," the sole and only Principle or cause of all that exists.

The wise man has said, "Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it." God's law is immutable, unchangeable, and can never be amended. A noted philosopher once declared that if he were to see a lump of lead suspended in mid-air without visible support, he would know at once that a hitherto unknown law had become manifest, and not that a law had been violated. The "miracles" of the Bible are very generally believed to have resulted from some temporary or special suspension of law. Yet a little consideration should convince anyone that a law which can be even momentarily set aside ceases to be a law. Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 135), "The miracle introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order, establishing the Science of God's unchangeable law."

But, asks one, can it rightly be said that God is powerless to reverse His own decrees on occasion? Christian Science emphasizes the omnipotence of God; but is it not plain that if omnipotence could annul its own work in the second instance, it must have been less than omnipotent in the first instance? The universe of God is not divided against itself; hence the fact remains that good cannot reverse itself.

A law that is good on one occasion is good on all occasions. If God's law could be set aside in one instance, the possibility of its suspension would continually confront us. It must, then, be evident that if the divine economy depended on such an unstable basis, the universe would be reduced to chaos. There is no element of chance in the divine plan. It must therefore be true that creation is not the result of an accidental conjunction or cooperation of material elements or forces. If the universe and man were the result of chance or accident, what hope could we have for their harmony or permanence?

Is it not plain that an orderly and enduring creation must perforce be on an absolutely spiritual basis? This spiritual basis must uncompromisingly contradict any material conception of creation, whether the theory of a man made from dust and a woman formed from his rib, or that man and the universe were evolved by material forces which have no relation whatever to Spirit. Christian Science repudiates both of these beliefs and stands squarely on the logical, orderly, spiritual, and scientific account of creation as given in the first chapter of Genesis and the opening verses of the second chapter. To declare that there are two separate and distinct creations, one spiritual and one material, is to accept the incongruous hypothesis of two supreme beings, or else to argue that God has a dual nature. Creation—man and the universe—is the spontaneous expression or reflection of the supreme Lawgiver. Mrs. Eddy states the case clearly when she says (ibid., p. 267): "The great I am made all 'that was made.' Hence man and the spiritual universe coexist with God."

God's law is ever operative, but this becomes apparent only as it is understood. This may be illustrated by the law of mathematics, which never ceases to act. Everywhere and under every condition twelve times twelve make one hundred and forty-four. Yet this fact is not available unless it is perceived. So it is with spiritual laws. They remain unchanged throughout eternity. They work unceasingly, and ignorance of them is the only thing that ever makes them seem inoperative in human experience. Christ Jesus clearly understood the laws of God, good; hence, he could unfailingly demonstrate them. To him there was no law of matter. He annulled so-called material law when he turned the water into wine. He showed the impotence of the so-called law of gravity when he walked on the water. He reversed the law supposed to govern supply when he fed the five thousand. And in the case of others, and finally in his own experience, he destroyed the spurious laws of sin, disease, and death. All these demonstrations were in strict consonance with spiritual law, in which matter or evil has no place or power.

Jesus said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also;" and he meant exactly what he said. Then why talk of a day of miracles past and gone, when God's power is available throughout eternity for those who are ready to utilize it? Christian Scientists rejoice that through an increasing understanding of spiritual law they are able to demonstrate it better; and they regard with satisfaction the significant reversal of so-called material law which is taking place in the world to-day. They recognize, however, that orderly revelation must be cumulative, and that progressive perception of God's unchanging law is possible only through the consistent demonstration of spiritual understanding as it comes to them.