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The Eternal Law
I. By the Eternal Law is meant, not any code that has been promulgated by God in the form of positive or statute law, but the supreme exemplar of all created life, existing eternally in the mind of God. These rules of life are not decrees, but are the ideas of God, or the knowledge which His infinite wisdom has of all creatures and of the mode of life suitable for each one of them. In other words the Eternal Law is God Himself in one particular aspect : for all that is in God is God. Each creature reproduces some of the innumerable facets of the Infinity of God; so that all the beauty, utility and harmonious adaptation of things arise from the fact that they are conformable to the divine idea, or to the law of their being which is in God, or that they resemble God. In a more special sense, the Eternal Law means God as the model of the moral perfection of rational creatures. This law of divine right reason has always existed, it has a necessary existence, it is immutable, it cannot cease or change, it is independent of promulgation as a positive law. Be grateful for the wonderful advantage you enjoy in having this supreme law so fully promulgated to you. You are in no darkness or uncertainty as to your rule of life, the nature of human perfection, and the means and the time when it will be fully accomplished. This benefit you receive from your religion.
II. The Eternal Law in God is the source of all other laws in the universe. It is manifested in these invariable sequences and harmonies which we call the laws of nature, of growth, of life, or the "nature of things." It is manifested in the positive statute laws of morals and religion, which have been directly revealed by God or developed by the progressive action of the Christian consciousness in the Church. This same Eternal Law ought also to be, but not always is, the source and model of those laws which human authorities make for the guidance of their communities. "By Me kings reign and lawgivers decree just things" (Prov. viii. 15). In three ways the Eternal Law is the source of human law.
1. Laws are truly laws, and are just and binding on the conscience, from the fact of their conformity to supreme justice in God.
2. The right and the power of legislating proceeds from a delegation of God s authority.
3. The Eternal Law as manifested through Reason, Conscience and Revelation must be the guide of those who would legislate profitably. Seek your own principle of guidance on every occasion, not in any subsidiary authority, or temporal consideration, or private views, but in the ultimate authority of all, the will of God and the example of Jesus Christ. "Look and make it according to the pattern that was shown thee on the mount" (Exod. xxv. 40).
III. As all laws spring from the Eternal Law, so it is there that we must seek for the true principles to guide us in every department of life and activity. The world generally seeks its principles of action elsewhere; its motives are taken from some lower level, or are even dictated by the spirit of evil which raises itself against all that is called God. Then, having violated the fundamental law of all being, men are surprised to find that they have unknowingly violated some subsidiary but important law of human nature or human society. There is an occult connection between the primary law and all secondary ones. When therefore the divine law is set aside, human wisdom finds itself brought to nought, results disappoint expectations, gains are outweighed by the drawbacks that accompany them, successes generate new and greater evils. Therefore "have confidence in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not upon thine own prudence. In all thy ways think on Him, and He will direct thy steps" (Prov. iii. 5, 6).
