Everyone is living under the mandate of law, whether he realizes it or not. Until instructed by Christian Science, which demonstrates the will of God as the supreme governing law of the universe, each individual seems to make laws for himself. His belief becomes the law of his experience, since human experience is nothing more than externalized belief. Paul understood this inevitable sequence and wrote (Gal. 6:7), "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Mary Baker Eddy quotes Paul's words on page 66 of "Miscellaneous Writings" and then makes this comment: "No possible injustice lurks in this mandate, and no human misjudgment can pervert it; for the offender alone suffers, and always according to divine decree."

A leading point in Christian Science is the fact that sin punishes itself by keeping the sinning consciousness out of God's kingdom. If the innocent seem to suffer, it is because they do not destroy the belief that they must do so, and not because God's law is in any way abrogated by error. Their belief delays their freedom only until they are better instructed by Science; but under no circumstance can they escape the blessing which is the heritage of innocence. God blesses what He makes, and the invariable reward for goodness is the elevation of thought to perceive clearer views of reality.

Whoever destroys false beliefs through the demonstration of spiritual reality is master of his experiences. Belief ceases to be a law to him, and he proves his true identity to be Love's law-controlled idea. But if false belief is tenacious and one is slow in recognizing its nothingness, or evades the issue, the belief will follow out the unpleasant development by which it destroys itself. Our Leader says (ibid., p. 73), "Belief fulfils the conditions of a belief, and these conditions destroy the belief." Like fire, which holds within itself the elements of self-destruction, every uncorrected false thought brings about its own annihilation. This is an inescapable law, as inescapable as the fact that righteousness reaps the reward of obedience to Love's law of good, the harvest of liberation from material limitations and disorder. The moment false belief is actually destroyed on the basis that God is All and that His creation is perfect, the penalty of believing falsely is annulled.

Christ Jesus was stating inescapable laws when he gave the Beatitudes to his listeners. He made it very clear that certain rewards follow righteous thoughts, and he made no concessions to any possible interference with this sequence. Those who are humble in spirit receive the kingdom of heaven; the meek inherit the earth; the merciful obtain mercy; the pure-hearted see God; the peacemakers find their true selfhood. Moreover, those who suffer persecution unjustly grow to higher spiritual stature because of their loyalty to righteousness.

"Give," said the Master (Luke 6:38), "and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom." In the face of this law individuals and nations need not fear to give generously in a righteous cause, for in the measure of their unselfed giving they will reap the multiplication of good. The invariable effect of true giving is to release divine energies of Love, which constitute the real man, energies which bring heaven to earth and demonstrate inexhaustible good.

Great demands are being made on peace-loving peoples today. The material sacrifices required seem incredible. But divine law is operating invariably, and right incentives will be blessed by progress toward world-wide harmony. We can trust divine law and obey the Father's mandate to love God above all else and our neighbor as ourselves. Mrs. Eddy says in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 278), "To coincide with God's government is the proper incentive to the action of all nations." Our Leader was referring to the war between the United States and Spain when she wrote those words in the year 1898, but they are applicable to the problems of today, as are the words which follow them: "If His purpose for peace is to be subserved by the battle's plan or by the intervention of the United States, so that the Cubans may learn to make war no more, this means and end will be accomplished."

The least hypocrisy, the slightest injustice, a dishonest motive, or an unmerciful act insinuating itself into the councils of statesmen or military leaders would stultify progress and delay victory over evil. It would bar mankind from the kingdom of heaven, where true law operates eternally, for the simple reason that error cannot enter heaven, where peace abides. Dishonesty and self-interest divide men, whereas obedience to God's law inevitably brings them together in witness to the fact that Mind's ideas are held in immortal bonds of unity through the mandate of Love. Whatever means nations need to take in order to rebuke aggression and check unmerciful materialistic philosophies, they will be blessed in the measure that love for God and man motivates their acts.

The establishment of peace among men must follow obedience to divine mandates. The sequence is inescapable. Paul states the law in these comforting words (Gal. 6:9): "Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

Helen Wood Bauman