When Pope wrote, "Order is Heaven's first law," in the early eighteenth century, he set forth an axiom which has since been almost universally accepted. About one hundred and fifty years later Mary Baker Eddy wrote in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 391): "Justice is the moral signification of law. Injustice declares the absence of law." An individual's expression of justice inevitably brings into his affairs a sense of law and order.

A house set in order, whether that of a family, a church, a corporation, or a nation, implies the establishment of just and harmonious relationships of all members with one another or an arrangement of things which promotes a tranquil and free state, permitting men, churches, businesses, and nations to realize and maintain their proper place and function. A dictionary defines order as "a condition in which everything is so arranged as to play its proper part," thereby bringing out the importance of order in all things pertaining to the well-being and activity of men.

The orderly and just procedure given by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 6:33), "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you," is the rule we must all follow, and it is as effectual today as when these words were first spoken. Jesus was really stating the First Commandment (Ex. 20:3), "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," in another way. Was it not love for those whom he taught that often inspired him to state a commandment affirmatively in terms of what obedience to the commandment would do for the individual, thus showing them the justice of God?

He knew that men were constantly seeking harmony in their affairs, and his loving counsel to them was to seek God first, and they would have all the other things they needed. That is, he was explaining to them that their understanding of and obedience to God's just law would bring order, harmony, and adequate supply. Mrs. Eddy saw the power of Jesus' words and works, and she proved for herself and others the laws underlying them by healing the sick and the sinning with spiritual understanding. Like him she instructs her followers who seek to demonstrate true order to turn their thought to God.

"To grasp the reality and order of being in its Science, you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Principle of all that really is," she writes on page 275 of Science and Health. And then, as though to help us in this right reasoning, she expands her thesis by adding: "Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, combine as one,—and are the Scriptural names for God. All substance, intelligence, wisdom, being, immortality, cause, and effect belong to God. These are His attributes, the eternal manifestations of the infinite divine Principle, Love. No wisdom is wise but His wisdom; no truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is Life but the divine; no good is, but the good God bestows."

As a result of my putting God first and keeping my thinking in order, a healing once occurred that has often inspired me to make greater efforts along these lines. A friend spoke to me of an acute pain in her stomach, remarking: "I must have eaten something which has poisoned me, because the pain has been severe for about two hours. I wonder what could have caused it?" Someone else joined us at that moment, and my friend walked away. I realized that since God, good, is the only cause, there is nothing which can cause pain. I dwelt on this fact of God as the only cause for some little time. My friend's discomfort did not return to my thought. The next morning she told me that she had been healed soon after our conversation.

Jesus' teaching called for a change in men's thoughts, a casting off of the limiting, binding customs of worship, habit, and duty, and an acceptance of an enlightened understanding of the infinite love of God which heals sin and sickness. This change in their basis of thought introduced a better order for humanity. But the ruts of rites and dogma and the regimentation of false theology and clesiasticism gradually obscured the true meaning of Jesus' teachings. In the last century Mrs. Eddy's purity and spiritual understanding lifted thought above these blinding mists, above the material order, and brought to light the Christ-spirit, or the consciousness of "the reality and order of being." In establishing order in their thoughts, her students avoid the ruts of formulas in treating disease, or a mechanical adherence to precedent in conducting their church or business affairs, just as they avoid the regimentation of autocratic methods and procedures in family, industrial, or governmental affairs. They know that these would tend to stifle inspiration and unfoldment and thus deprive them of joy, balance, and harmony in their activities.

When seeking God's righteousness, one involuntarily departs from a sense of mere human goodness and the belief that he can do something of himself. This turning away from self to God naturally brings more patience and loving consideration in his dealings with others. In this way personal sense is overcome, and spiritual sense is realized.

Some individuals seem to express order more readily than others, but all can achieve it "by reckoning God as the divine Principle of all that really is." Alertness to handle claims of error as merely beliefs in a power apart from God is orderly. Mrs. Eddy writes of those who are utilizing their understanding of Christian Science (Science and Health, p. 97): "They will aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection."

This need not be a long-drawn-out process. The Scripture states plainly that when during the reign of Hezekiah the temple at Jerusalem was cleansed, the people turned from idol worship to seek God and obey Him (II Chron. 29:35, 36): "So the service of the house of the Lord was set in order. And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people: for the thing was done suddenly."

Nothing can cleanse the temple of our consciousness so completely, or put it in order so quickly, as to seek first the justice of God's law and order and abide thereby. Then truly we can say with the Psalmist (Ps. 16:5, 6): "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places."