THE LAW OF GOD AND ITS BREACH.

WITHOUT going into any superflous details, we shall call the Law of God
an act of His will by which He ordains what things we may do or not do,
and binds us unto observance under penalty of His divine displeasure.

The law thus defined pertains to reasonable beings alone, and supposes
on our part, as we have seen, knowledge and free will. The rest of
creation is blindly submissive under the hand of God, and yields a
necessary obedience. Man alone can obey or disobey; but in this latter
case he renders himself amenable to God's justice who, as his Creator,
has an equal right to command him, and be obeyed.

The Maker first exercised this right when He put into His creature's
soul a sense of right and wrong, which is nothing more than conscience,
or as it is called here, natural law. To this law is subject every
human being, pagan, Jew and Christian alike. No creature capable of a
human act is exempt.

The provisions of this law consider the nature of our being, that is,
the law prescribes what the necessities of our being demand, and it
prohibits what is destructive thereof. Our nature requires physically
that we eat, drink and sleep. Similarly, in a moral sense, it calls for
justice, truthfulness, respect of God, of the neighbor, and of self.
All its precepts are summed up in this one: "Do unto others as you
would have them do unto you"--the golden rule. Thence flows a series of
deducted precepts calculated to protect the moral and inherent rights
of our nature.

But we are more concerned here with what is known as the positive Law