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The Perfect Law

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jan 4, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 1.

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The Perfect Law

By L. A. S.

“THE law of the Lord is perfect.” Nature gives to us this revelation of God. All nature speaks to us of law. It is by law that all things move, grow, retain or change their forms. The chemist, the astronomer, the botanist, are impressed with the existence of fixed laws governing the relation of each unit of matter to all other units, whether small or great, and of every process of growth or disintegration. The industries of the world depend upon the unvarying operation of natural laws.
The laws of nature are perfect laws. The sun and moon and all the host of heaven daily speak to us this truth. There is no uncertainty, no imperfection, in their motions. The exact day, hour, and minute of the coming of an eclipse, however remote in the future, can be known by calculation based upon the perfection of the laws governing the motions of the heavenly bodies. The study of plant life reveals to the botanist a perfect law of development. The lilies of the field, arrayed more gorgeously than was King Solomon, declare the perfection of the law by which they grow. The heavens and all nature declare the glory of God.
All nature declares against the doctrine that the law of God is imperfect and susceptible of abolition. A universe without law would be impossible. There can be no organization, no government, without law, and without organization there could be no life. Man, the most highly organized of all bodies, is of all the most in need of law for his guidance, and demands a higher law than other orders of created things. This higher law of God is given him in the ten precepts spoken from Mt. Sinai. That this higher law is not perfect and unchangeable, like the laws studied by the astronomer and the chemist, is beyond belief.
Those who rightly perceive the glory of God as declared in nature will the more readily seek to the higher and more perfect revelation of God in the words spoken by inspiration by the holy men of old. They will seek to come into harmony with that perfect moral law which means perfection of character in all those whose lives are ordered by its precepts. They will seek the one avenue through which this harmony may be attained—the avenue of faith in Jesus Christ as the Saviour of sinners.
L. A. S.