This is a Last Crusade article. If you are not familiar with the Last Crusade, you can find the articles here and here. It is a new movement devoted to Christ, Constitution, Chivalry.
The Last Crusade portion are here:
Intro
Tenth Commandment, Part One
Tenth Commandment, Part Two
Ninth Commandment, Part One
Ninth Commandment, Part Two
(Liberty's back)
Thou shalt not steal. (Exodus 20:!5)
This is the only Commandment for which I did not think of a modern behavior which our culture accepts that older cultures did not.
We have many kinds of stealing. I could speak about forfetures or pirating intellectual property, for instance. But, I think most people, in general, understand that those things are wrong. I could not think of anything that I haven't already covered that falls under stealing that we think of as acceptable or good.
So instead, here is the entire text of the article on the Eighth Commandment that I quoted in part earlier.
Next Column will be on the Seventh Commandment, upon which there is plenty to expound.
God's Laws Cannot Be Broken
EMILY LACEY
From the December 1968 issue of The Christian Science Journal
The Ten Commandments, given by God to the children of Israel through Moses, have for centuries been a basis of human conduct, and to the extent that they have been understood and obeyed, they have uplifted the race. Many people cast them aside as useless and out of date; others see in them a moral code for orderly living; while some believe man to be a mortal sinner who must struggle to live in accord with them. From any of these standpoints there seems to be difficulty in reaching the standard laid down in the commandments.
Yet God, who is divine Love, could not give commands that are incapable of being obeyed. If we find them difficult to obey, we have evidently not understood the divine facts underlying them. When we learn their true, or spiritual, meaning through the study of Christian Science, we see them to be vital, practical laws, indispensable to our everyday living. Moses received the commandments through inspiration, and we cannot understand them except through inspiration. God's statutes are not punitive and restrictive rules that limit our enjoyment. Seen in their true sense, they protect our God-given heritage of perfection and blessedness.
Reasoning from the correct, scientific basis, we see that the man of God's creating cannot break God's law but lives forever as Mind's idea; thus it is divinely natural for him to live in accord with this law. The forbidding "Thou shalt not" becomes "Thou canst not." Mrs. Eddy states, "The real man cannot depart from holiness, nor can God, by whom man is evolved, engender the capacity or freedom to sin." To accept the belief that there is a mind which can break God's laws is tantamount to admitting that God is not omnipotent and supreme. From this spiritual viewpoint, which is the true viewpoint, we realize that God's absolute laws, typified by the commandments, cannot be broken.
These grand truths are of inestimable value to mankind. They deliver us from every phase of evil. As we grasp these truths, we are given the strength and moral courage to overthrow evil suggestions. If in what seems to be a discordant situation we hold steadfastly to these truths, we find light and healing flowing into our consciousness, thereby replacing discord with harmony.
