| ANALYSIS. | REFERENCES. |
| I. The Effective Quality in Law—Inexorableness. | |
| II. Reign of Law vs. Government by "Arbitrary Will." | Doc. & Cov., Sec. 88: also Sec. 130. |
| III. Mercy and Special Providence in a Reign of Law. | Drummond's Natural Law in the Spiritual World—Introduction. |
| IV. Law and Destructive and Constructive Forces. | Fiske's Studies in Religion, pp. 337-340; and the works and passages quoted in the body of this lesson. |
| V. God No Respector of Persons; Mercy and Special Providence Under Dominion of Law. |
[Footnote A: "Inexorable"—literally not to be moved or changed by petition or prayer. Immovable, relentless. See Cent. Dict.]
SPECIAL TEXTS: "Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence [from prison] till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." (The Christ: Matt, v.26.)
"Think not I am come to destroy the law I a. not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (Matt, v.17, 18.)
DISCUSSION.
1. The Essence of Law: Inexorableness is of the essence of law. There can be no force in law only as it is inexorable. What effect is to cause, in the physical world, that penalty must be to violation of law in the moral and spiritual kingdom. This is what is meant by the inexorableness of law.
The inexorableness of law is at once both its majesty and glory; without it neither majesty nor glory could exist; neither respect nor sense of security, nor safety, nor rational faith. If the idea of the "reign of law" be set aside and there be substituted for it the reign of God by his sovereign will, independent of law, even then we must postulate such conception of the attributes of God that regularity will result from his personal government, not capriciousness, today one thing, tomorrow another. Hence one of old viewing God's government from the side of its being a direct, personal reign of God rather than a reign of God through law, wrote his message from God as follows:
"I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed."[A]
[Footnote A: Malachi iii:6. For the notion expressed in the text that Malachi viewed God's government from the side of a personal reign, see the preceding verses of the chapter cited.]
And another occupying the same point of view, said: