Christian Science reveals that the straight line of obedience to the Ten Commandments and to the Sermon on the Mount is the shortest distance between the forsaking of depraved material beliefs and the attainment of the spiritual facts of being. Students of this Science are admonished to adhere strictly to the spirit and the letter of the law of God and the gospel of Christ. In the words of the book of Revelation (22:14), "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."

A prayerful study of the Ten Commandments and of Christ Jesus' Sermon on the Mount reveals a beautiful and practical blending of law and gospel. Through the ages the thou-shalt-not of Hebrew law, coinciding with the Christly blessed-are-ye, has brought to human experience a sanctifying and purifying of the fleshly sense of self. Today this divine coincidence appears in the healing efficacy of Christian Science. In her Message to The Mother Church for 1902, Mrs. Eddy states (p. 8), "The law and the gospel concur, and both will be fulfilled."

Of the First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Ex. 20:3), Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 340), "The divine Principle of the First Commandment bases the Science of being, by which man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal." This commandment demands that we have one God and love Him supremely. It further demands that we acknowledge no other than spiritual truth, life, substance, intelligence, and love. Having one God, one infinite good, we can demonstrate the universal brotherhood of man and see every individual as loving his neighbor as himself.

When earnest prayers remain unanswered, it is sometimes found that disobedience to the third commandment—not to take the name of God in vain—is at the root of the trouble. Do we pray that the sick may recover and at the same time doubt God's ability and willingness to heal a particular case or the patient's ability to receive the healing Christ? Or do we sometimes pray for healing while believing that some material remedy could accomplish the healing more quickly than would spiritual means alone. The Beatitudes teach us that the meek are blessed. It is the meek who hallow God's name and know Him as omnipresent Love. Christly meekness attributes all power to God and thereby inherits the earth—the understanding of eternity and immortality. There is no unanswered prayer in Truth. The Word of God is never ineffective. It always heals when rightly applied.

The Sabbath of the fourth commandment points to the glory of the endless day of Love's creating. It is the blessedness of spiritual understanding which comes with the heart's deep hungering and thirsting after righteousness. It is the fullness of joy we experience in beholding the restful unfolding of Love's complete and perfect work. In this day it is known that true healing is the activity of the revealing Christ in human consciousness and that the human mind is not an agent in spiritual healing. Let us not defile this Sabbath by believing that of ourselves we can do anything. And let us acknowledge God's omnipotence and keep His Sabbath filled with holiness.

The sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," demands a firm rejection of the false claim that man is mortal, for the belief of mortality is death. Man in God's likeness is in a state of conscious immortality. Jesus said (Matt. 5:8), "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God," that is, discern immortality.

Never do the pure in heart indulge in destructive criticism, unrighteous judgment, hasty condemnation or any other form of hate. They denounce these murderous thoughts. They express God, divine Love, and behold man as His immortal reflection. They understand that disease cannot annihilate Life, that criticism cannot ruin true character, and that nuclear force cannot destroy man. The pure in heart enjoy the blessedness of continually seeing the unreality of the testimony of material sense and understanding the facts of divine Science.

In "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says of the ninth commandment (p. 67), "'Thou shalt not bear false witness;' that is, thou shalt not utter a lie, either mentally or audibly, nor cause it to be thought." How blessed are those alert Christians who, always ready to condemn error, charitably refrain from condemning persons! To be a law to oneself but not to others, to look at one's neighbor in an unselfish way, to love one's enemies and pray for them, is the Golden Rule in operation, as well as the essence of true witnessing.

Devout obedience to law and gospel is the heart and soul of Christianity and the rock on which Christian Science is founded. When the law of God and the gospel of Christ are written in our hearts and demonstrated in our daily lives, obedience to moral law will be spontaneous. Such obedience aids spiritual growth and unfolds courage, devotion, and accomplishment. It expands our horizon, enhances our usefulness, and increases our ability to heal. We are told in Proverbs (6:23), "The commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life."