Obeying, Honoring, and Sustaining the Law

In considering the importance of law in our lives, we would preface what follows with this simple yet profound fact: that obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law is basic to all peace, all progress, and to the safety and security of all people and all property.

Nature obeys law; the universe obeys law; and men, for their safety and survival and for the salvation of their souls, must obey law. And there is nothing perhaps of much more importance pertaining to young people than to set before them an example of respect for law, of the living of law⎯an example on the part of parents, of teachers, and all others in honoring and sustaining law. Indeed, laxity toward law can lead to the loss of much that is most dear in life.

Sometimes the young⎯and others also⎯resent restraint. They hear of freedom and forget that freedom can only be preserved by the living of law. If everyone were lawless everyone would be bound by fear, everyone would have to live by force, and no one would be secure in his life, his property, or his possessions⎯for the absence of respect for law leads to looseness and license. The absence of law is anarchy, and anarchy has never worked in the world. “…That which is governed by law is also preserved by law . . . ”

These facts, among many others, suggest in summary: first, that the law should be as simple and understandable as possible; second, that law should be lived, honored, observed; and that parents and all others also should set before the young, an example of living and respecting law, from the earliest years of youth⎯an example that the young may safely look to for their attitudes toward law and life, for law is the safeguard of life, and he who flaunts it is endangering his own rights, his own freedom, his own safety and survival.

“There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated⎯And when we obtain any blessing . . . it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.” Restraint and self-control are two essentials in the living of the law, and are of prime importance among all the lessons of life.