"While I listen to the music, Near my trundle bed I'm kneeling, "Hands are on my head so loving, "Prayer is over, to my pillow With a 'good-night' kiss I creep, Scarcely waking while I whisper, 'Now I lay me down to sleep'; Then my mother, o'er me bending, Prays in earnest words, but mild: 'Hear my prayer, O Heavenly Father, Bless, oh, bless, my precious child.' "Yet I am but only dreaming; Ne'er I'll be a child again; Calling me from earth to heaven XV LOVE'S GOLDEN CHAIN OF LAW C "All's Love, Yet All's Law" HRIST'S commission to the apostles was expressed in these words: "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." The word "key" means the secret, the combination, or the cypher. In popular language we speak of this or that as being "the key to the situation." In Scripture the word "key" means the doctrine, the theory, the principle, or the idea which opens the door to the treasure house of knowledge. It was in this sense that the word was used when the Master said: "Woe unto you, lawyers, for ye have taken away the key of knowledge." They would not enter in themselves, and they had blocked the road for others. In seeking to express the same thought of the knowledge-revealing power of a sovereign idea, Paul has a favourite word of his own. It is that peculiar Pauline expression, law. Paul was the first writer who produced scientific literature. He deals with the psychology of the soul. He tries to reduce everything to a law, which is the first step towards the construction of a scientific system of thought. Paul coined that scientific phrase “law," as we find it in popular use by cultured men and women of our own day-"I find then a law"-" I see another law." Paul speaks of the law of sin, the law of life, the law of truth, the law of the carnal mind, the law of death, and the law of love. Wherever the Apostle to the Gentiles finds a natural tendency or force at work, be its course upward or downward, he immediately describes it as a "law." Law is a scientific term. It is also a Scriptural term. It was a Scriptural term for nearly two thousand years before it was a scientific term. The first work of science was in the realm of the soul. Christianity coined the first, happy, descriptive phrase in the vocabulary of modern science. Christianity and Science struck off the first spark of illumination in the great brain of the Apostle to the Gentiles, so far as that spark could reflect its spiritual glory on the yellow parchment of literature. Jesus Christ was the first scientist. Paul was the first producer of scientific literature. Every law is an operating force in the universe. Law is God's method of procedure. Law is the divine habit. Natural law is God's way of doing things. David was a student of nature and was verging on the secrets of nature when he exclaimed: "Oh, how love I Thy law; it is my study all the day." David was a lover of nature. Jesus entered in where David, awed by the mystery of the universe, stood in holy but hesitating admiration; therefore the unmatched Galilean is spoken of in apocalyptic language as "He that hath the key of David." The key is the law which unlocks the door of the temple of knowledge. The key to every realm is the law which governs it. The artist deals with the law of colour; the orator with the law of inspiration; the musician with the law of harmony; the architect with the law of proportion; the merchant with the law of supply and demand; and the statesman with the law of historical event. Truth is the law of relationship. Beauty is the law of proper proportion and perfect blending. Grace is the law of action. Logic is the law of thought. Eloquence is the law of expression. Vibration is the law of motion. Grammar is the law of language. Love is the law of life. Robert Browning sings: "I have gone the whole round of creation, Read fiction for entertainment. Read philosophy for the logic of truth. Read biography for human experience. Read poetry for high-born sentiment. Read history for startling incident and epochal event. Read science for law. Read Scripture for the laws which govern the spiritual realm. The Bible is the highest authority in the things which pertain to the highest realm. The great truths of the Bible are the great laws of the spiritual realm. The supreme law of the universe is Love. I believe it is the poet Gilder who exclaims: "Thru love to light! Oh, wonderful the way Every new advance in human progress has come through the discovery of a great law. Fulton discovered the law of the river. Franklin discovered Marconi discovered the law of the lightning flash. the law of the air. Newton discovered the law which holds the earth in its grasp. Galileo discovered the law of the heavens. Burbank discovered the law of the flower. Edison discovered the law of electrical control. Jesus discovered the law of love as the supreme law of the universe. Civilization to-day is pivoted on five great laws. First, Marriage, the law of the family. Second, Property, the law of commerce. Third, The Sabbath, the law of rest and recreation. Fourth, The State, the law of individual liberty as guaranteed by a social federation. Fifth, The Church, the law of religious liberty. It has taken humanity ten thousand years to learn the lesson of these five great institutional laws Property and Honesty. Government and Liberty. Marriage and Purity. Rest and Spirituality. Religion and Toleration. Modern science has established two great facts. 1. Every law of nature is universal in its application. 2. In order to command or control a law, we must move in harmony with it. We must obey it. First: Law is universal in its application. "The falling of a leaf, the flight of a bird, the laughter of a child, the vibration of a song"-these all move in harmony with certain well-known laws. That tiny little watch owned by the Queen of England will keep just as good time as the great clock which |