The more man knows, the more he is responsible for, and a person with a knowledge of Spiritual Law, which he does not practice, suffers greatly, in consequence. “The fear of the Lord (law) is the beginning of wisdom.” If we read the word Lord, law, it will make many passages in the Bible much clearer.
“Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord” (law). It is the law which takes vengeance, not God. God sees man perfect, “created in his own image,” (imagination) and given “power and dominion.”
This is the perfect idea of man, registered in Divine Mind, awaiting man’s recognition; for man can only be what he sees himself to be, and only attain what he sees himself attaining.
“Nothing ever happens without an on-looker” is an ancient saying.
Man sees first his failure or success, his joy or sorrow, before it swings into visibility from the scenes set in his own imagination. We have observed this in the mother picturing disease for her child, or a woman seeing success for her husband.
Jesus Christ said, “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”
So, we see freedom (from all unhappy conditions) comes through knowledge—a knowledge of Spiritual Law.
Obedience precedes authority, and the law obeys man when he obeys the law. The law of electricity must be obeyed before it becomes man’s servant. When handled ignorantly, it becomes man’s deadly foe. So with the laws of Mind!
For example: A woman with a strong personal will, wished she owned a house which belonged to an acquaintance, and she often made mental pictures of herself living in the house. In the course of time, the man died and she moved into the house. Several years afterwards, coming into the knowledge of Spiritual Law, she said to me: “Do you think I had anything to do with that man’s death?” I replied: “Yes, your desire was so strong, everything made way for it, but you paid your Karmic debt. Your husband, whom you loved devotedly, died soon after, and the house was a white elephant on your hands for years.”
The original owner, however, could not have been affected by her thoughts had he been positive in the truth, nor her husband, but they were both under Karmic law. The woman should have said (feeling the great desire for the house), “Infinite Intelligence, give me the right house, equally as charming as this, the house which is mine by divine right.”