(Scripture Reading Exercise.)

THE REIGN OF LAW.^[A]

[Footnote A: "The fundamental conception of law is an ascertained working sequence or constant order among the phenomena of nature.

* * "The laws of nature are simply statements of the orderly condition of things in nature, what is found in nature by a sufficient number of competent observers.

"And despite the limitations of its sphere on every side, Law is still the largest, richest, and surest source of human knowledge." (Henry Drummond: Natural Law in the Spiritual World, Introduction, pp. 4, 5.)]

SPECIAL TEXT: "There are many kingdoms, and to every kingdom is given a law; and to every law there are certain bounds also, and conditions. All beings who abide not in those conditions [i. e., laws] are not justified." (Doc. & Cov., Sec. 88:37-39.)

DISCUSSION.

1. Government of the Universe—(A) By Unvarying Law: "Two interpretations may be given of the mode of government of the world," says Professor John W. Draper.

"It may be by incessant, divine interventions, or by the operation of unvarying law." The former view is held by Draper to be the view of the Roman religion (pre-Christian); and later of the Roman Christian religion. A priesthood, he holds, will always incline to the theory of "divine interventions," "since it must desire to be considered as standing between the prayer of the votary and the providential act." "Not without reason, therefore," he continues, "did they [the priests] look upon the doctrine of government by 'unvarying law' with disfavor." And then continues in the following manner:

2. Draper's View—Unvarying Law: "The orderly movement of the heavens could not fail in all ages to make a deep impression on thoughtful observers—the rising and setting of the sun; the increasing or diminishing light of the day; the waxing and waning of the moon; the return of the seasons in their proper course; the measured march of the wandering planets in the sky—what are all these and a thousand such, but manifestations of an orderly and unchanging procession of events? The faith of early observers in this interpretation may perhaps have been shaken by the occurrence of such a phenomenon as an eclipse, a sudden and mysterious breach of the ordinary course of events; but it would be resumed in tenfold strength as soon as the discovery was made that eclipses themselves recur, and may be predicted.

"Astronomical predictions of all kinds depend upon the admission of this fact—that there never has been and never will be any intervention in the operation of natural laws. The scientific philosopher affirms that the condition of the world at any given moment is the direct result of its condition in the preceding moment, and the direct cause of its condition in the subsequent moment."^[A]

[Footnote A: Conflict Between Religion and Science, p. 229.]

In the remainder of the chapter here quoted, Draper traces the struggle between the idea of government by special Providence and government by "unvarying law." until the latter triumphs in modern thought and science.

3. White's View—Unvarying Law: To the same purpose, Andrew D. White, once professor of History at Cornell University, and President of the University for twenty-five years, published his great work, "A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology,"^[A] The title of a few of the chapters will show the drift of the thought: "From Creation to Evolution," "From 'Signs and Wonders' to Law in Heaven," "From Genesis to Geology," "From Magic to Chemistry and Physics," "From Miracles to Medicine," and so following.

[Footnote A: The Work is in Two Volumes, Appleton and Co., 1903.]

4. John Fiske's View—Unvarying Law: Of course John Fiske (and the same may be said practically of all our modern scientists and philosophers) inclines to the same view—government of the universe by "unvarying law." Fiske describes the effect of the modern intellectual movement to be "to discredit more than ever before the Latin idea of God as a power outside of the course of nature and occasionally interfering with it. In all directions the process of evolution has been discovered, working after similar methods, and this has forced upon us the belief in the Unity of Nature. We are thus driven to the Greek conception of God as the power working in and through nature, without interference or infraction of law. We have so far spelled out the history of creation as to see that all has been done in strict accordance with law. * * * So beautiful is all this orderly coherence, so satisfying to some of our intellectual needs, that many minds are inclined to doubt if anything more can be said of the universe than that it is a Reign of Law, an endless aggregate of coexistences and sequences."^[A]

[Footnote A: Studies in Religion, pp. 337-8.]

5. Henry Drummond's View—Unvarying Law: Drummond, in 1893, published his "Natural Law in the Spiritual World," with a view, as the title suggests, of bringing the phenomena of the spirit-world into harmony with the modern scientific conceptions that obtain respecting the natural world. His self-imposed task was to "demonstrate the naturalness of the supernatural;" that the natural and the spiritual world are one. Drummond's conception was a noble one, and resulted in the production of a very notable and convincing work, though meeting in some quarters with the impatience that attaches to works of its class, viz., the class that attempts to work out harmony between science and religion; or between the natural and the spiritual world.^[A]

[Footnote A: Thus Andrew D. White, in his "Warfare of Science with Theology," speaking of the phases of theological attack upon science, represents the third and the last—as "an attempt" at compromise—"compromise by means of far-fetched reconciliations of textual statements with ascertained fact" (Warfare, Vol. I, p. 218). That Drummond himself was aware that these "attempts at compromise" of the differences between science and religion, or the "natural and spiritual world," is evident from his preface, where he says: "No class of works is received with more suspicion, I had almost said derision, than those which deal with Science and Religion. Science is tired of reconciliations between two things which never should have been contrasted. Religion is offended by the patronage of an ally which it professes not to need; and the critics have rightly discovered that, in most cases where Science is either pitted against Religion or fused with it, there is some fatal misconception to begin with as to the scope and province of either."]

6. Difficulties in the Way of Government by Unvarying Law; (1) Limitations of Laws: The difficulties between the conception of government of the world by "unvarying law," and the facts of man's spiritual or religious experiences, which seems at times to be in contravention of law, answers to prayer, healing the sick through faith, foreknowledge of coming events, and the like, would disappear if only men would recognize the fact that laws have their limitations; and that laws in nature known to us may have their force broken or counteracted by the operation of other forces. For example: the power of ocean currents and the winds to carry objects with them in the direction of their movement is overcome by another force, though no less operating under law, viz., the force found in steam; the force of gravitation by the levitating power of gas; the natural tendency of water to seek its level by evaporation and the absorbing power of the atmosphere, are examples. This principle of "law being governed by law," was taught by Joseph Smith as early as 1832, in a revelation received in that year, and in which it was said: "Unto every kingdom is given a law; and unto every law there are certain bounds also and conditions." The context of the passage makes it clear that "kingdoms" here are not groups of men or nations over which a monarch reigns; but substances, matter; worlds and world-systems, and their inhabitants under the dominion of law; the universe considered in its divisions and subdivisions. "Verily I say unto you," continues the revelation, "he [God] hath given a law unto all things by which they move in their times and their seasons; and their courses are fixed; even the courses of the heavens and the earth, which comprehend the earth and all the planets."^[A] And yet these laws have their metes and bounds, their limitations; fixed, however, by the operation of other laws, not by the arbitrary will of an absolute monarch.

[Footnote A: Doc. & Cov., Sec. 88:42, 43.]

(2) "Miracles" Part of the Divine Economy: The criticism of religionists on the conception of the government of the universe by the operation of "unvarying law," is that it bars out of the economy of things any place for the special providences of God; destroys all value in prayer; and eliminates miracles. To which the answer is "Not at all!" The whole seeming difficulty arises from a misconception of the means by which the providences of God are wrought; and the means by which socalled "miracles" are brought to pass. This subdivision of the subject may be treated under a brief discussion of "Miracles" usually defined to be an "event in derogation of the laws of nature." What I have said elsewhere upon this subject will answer my purpose here.^[A] There is a general misapprehension of the term miracle. It is usually understood as "an event or effect contrary to the established constitution and course of things, or a deviation from the known laws of nature." Renan defines a miracle to be, "not simply the inexplicable, it is a formal derogation from recognized laws in the name of a particular desire." What is especially faulty in these definitions is this: Miracles are held to be events outside or contrary to the laws of nature. Let us examine this:

[Footnote A: "New Witnesses for God," Vol. I, p. 252.]

Two hundred years ago the only motive powers known to ocean navigators were wind and the ocean currents. Suppose at that time those old mariners had seen one of our modern ocean steamers running against both ocean currents and the wind, and, withal, making better speed, in spite of both wind and tide than the old sailing vessel could match even when running before the wind and the ocean currents in her favor. What would have been the effect on the mind of the old-time sailor? "It is a miracle!" he would have exclaimed; that is, it would have been an "effect contrary to the established constitution and course of things," "a derogation from recognized laws." But is such an effect to us who know something of the force of steam contrary to the laws of nature? No; it is simply the employment of forces in nature of which the old-time mariner was ignorant; and while it would have been a miracle to him, to us it is merely the application of a newly-discovered force of nature, and it is now so common that we cease to look upon it with wonder. So with the things that we in our ignorance call miracles—such as healing the sick, restoring the blind to sight, making the lame to walk, through exercise of faith; and the resurrection of the dead—instead of these things being in "derogation from recognized laws, we shall yet learn that they are done simply by the application of laws of which we are as yet in ignorance."^[A] With man's limited knowledge of the laws of nature, how presumptuous it is in him to say that the healing of the sick or even the resurrection of the dead are in "derogation of the laws of nature," or that deviation from those few laws of nature with which he is acquainted will never happen, or is impossible! Better reasoners are they who, like George Rawlinson, say: "Miraculous interpositions on fitting occasions may be as much a regular, fixed, and established rule of his [God's] government, as the working ordinarily by what are called natural laws." In other words, what we in our ignorance call miracles, are to God merely the results of the application of higher laws or forces of nature not yet learned by man. Miracles are to be viewed as a part of the divine economy.

[Footnote A: "In the progress of science, all phenomena have been shown, by indisputable evidence, to be amenable to law, and even in the cases in which those laws have not yet been exactly ascertained, delay in ascertaining them is fully accounted for by the special difficulties of the subject; the defenders of miracles have adapted their argument to this altered state of things, by maintaining that a miracle need not necessarily be a violation of law. It may, they say, take place in fulfilment of a more recondite law, to us unknown.

"If by this it be only meant that the Divine Being, in the exercise of his power of interfering with and suspending his own laws, guides himself by some general principle or rule of action, this, of course, cannot be disproved, and is in itself the most probable supposition." ("Theism," in "Three Essays on Religion"—Mill,—pp. 223-4.)

Shedd treats upon the same theme and much in the same spirit; "The miracle is not contrary to all nature but only to nature as known to us," he represents the Apologists of early Christianity as saying, and then quotes a long and admirable passage from Augustine. ("History of Christian Doctrine," Vol. I, pp. 167-169.)]

3. The New Dispensation Committed to the Reign of Law: The Prophet of the New Dispensation, as we have seen, taught the doctrine of the reign of law in God's universe; and not alone in the physical or natural universe, but as well in the spiritual and moral phases of that universe.

In the revelation already quoted for the reign of law in the physical universe, he also says: "And again, verily I say unto you, that which is governed by law is also preserved by law, and perfected and sanctified by the same. That which breaketh a law, and abideth not by law, but seeketh to become a law unto itself, and willeth to abide in sin, and altogether abideth in sin, cannot be sanctified by law, neither by mercy, justice nor judgment. Therefore they must remain filthy still." And again he said: "There is a law irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world upon which all blessings are predicated; and when we obtain any blessing from God it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated."^[A] The Prophet of the New Dispensation, then, the gospel of that dispensation, its Theology, stand committed to the sublime doctrine that the universe in every way is under the reign of law; and hence, in some way, the Atonement, by and through which man is redeemed; the necessity,—the absolute necessity—for it; the reason why that means, and that means alone, could bring redemption and put man in the way of salvation—all this must be by reason of the existence of some law by which the facts in the case are governed. These laws and an understanding of them are the object of our research.

[Footnote A: Doc. & Cov., Sec. 130:21,22.]