“My son, forget not my law”

Christian Science , declaring the truth about God and man, is surely the Comforter which Jesus promised the Father would send to teach us “all things.” As our thoughts become more intent on the things of God; as we study daily the Lesson-Sermon arranged in the Christian Science Quarterly and made up of references from the Bible and from “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy; as we let this teaching rule our thinking and our living, we find the Comforter near and available.

Christian Science has illumined the Bible text, “My son, forget not my law,” in a remarkable way for at least one individual. In the old teaching there seemed to be little comfort in the words; but, in the light of Christian Science teaching, how they glow with the radiance of healing, spiritual light! Once, when for a long period seeming difficulties continually piled one upon another; when existence seemed little else than a heartbreaking climb up a precipitous hill with no top in sight, the words “my son” recurred again and again to the writer with encouragement and healing in their wonderful meaning. “My son”—God’s child! Claimed of God! The thought was marvelous. If the child of infinite good, then what could there be to fear? “Forget not my law.” Which law? Why, the law of unlimited love and goodness, holding all creation in its omnipotent control; by its very wholeness, oneness, and perfection annihilating all belief in anything unlike itself, protecting, upholding, encompassing, blessing all. Suppose that material sense, at times, did seem to testify to pain and sickness scarcely to be borne, who should heed the testimony of a proved liar?

When one has had even a glimpse of the operation of divine law, the law of life and health and goodness and blessing to mankind, the testimony of a false witness, testify it ever so long or loudly, cannot prevail to refute true reason and divine revelation. Suppose the bogies of poverty and threatened disaster knock persistently at the door of consciousness! “My son, forget not my law,”—the law of ever present abundant supply and protection for all God’s children. If we are obeying the law included in the First Commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” we can rest secure in the operation of this law to expose all falsities as utter nothingness, and to prove the Psalmist’s words: “How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house.”

In pondering the question of divine law and how to prove its availability to human needs, the writer has been arrested by the word “proportion,” with its adverbial and adjectival variations as used by Mrs. Eddy; and on turning to this word by means of the Concordances to her works, she has been much struck by the number of times it is found in her writings. When we study the passages containing them, we also find the rule given whereby to apply divine law to all our affairs, and so to experience its protection and blessing. The oft-quoted lines on page 261 of Science and Health, “Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts,” states this rule admirably.

We expect good; we long for and pray for good. Why, then, is it not experienced more fully? Is not the answers, that we are conscious only of the good we are thinking and living? In other words, the law of harmony is appearing to us as we use it. There does not seem to be anything which disturbs the so-called carnal mind more than a statement of this kind; for the carnal mind is continually arguing that we do not get one half the good we deserve; that we are much wronged individuals; and so on. Well, humanly speaking, so we may be; but it is the carnal mind that defrauds us. One’s enemies are those of the own mental household; or, in other words, as a man “thinketh in his heart, so is he.” We are illogical when we grumble. A criminal does not invoke the aid of the law against which the has offended. He may inveigh against it; but he most certainly does not expect the law to help him until he obeys it. In proportion—just that!—as he becomes a law-abiding citizen can he experience the benefits of the law.

A little boy who had some understanding of cause and effect as taught in Christian Science, while playing in the nursery of a child whose family were not interested in Christian Science, was heard to cough. “You must get your mother to give you some cough mixture,” said the grandmother of the other child. “Oh, no,” said the boy quietly; “we believe in God.” Here was exemplified an understanding of divine law. The child knew and loved God; therefore he could trust Him, and receive help in time of trouble. The woman was so touched and awakened by the child’s words, uttered so simply but convincingly, that she went to the boy’s mother, told her story, story, and asked for the loan of a copy of the Christian Science textbook. In his own way a child of seven had obeyed the command, “My son, forget not my law,” and a woman of seventy had responded and was blessed.