While the act of love was consummated under the wise guardianship of the angels, man’s existence was free from sorrow, pain, and death. But when, under the tutelage of the Lucifer Spirits, he ate of the Tree of Knowledge and perpetuated the race without regard for interplanetary lines of force, he transgressed the law, and the bodies thus formed crystallized unduly, and became subject to death in a much more perceptible manner than had hitherto been the case. Thus he was forced to create new bodies more frequently as the span of life in them shortened. Celestial warders of the creative force drove him from the garden of _love_ into the wilderness of the world, and he was made responsible for his actions under the cosmic _law_ which governs the universe. Thus for ages he struggled on, seeking to work out his own salvation, and the earth in consequence crystallized more and more. Divine hierarchies, the Christ Spirit included, worked upon the earth from without as the group spirit guides the animals under its protectorate; but as Paul truly says, none could be justified under the law, for under the law all sinned, and all must die. There is in the old covenant no hope beyond the present, save a foreshadowing of _one who is to come_ and restore righteousness. Thus John tells us that the _law_ was given by Moses, and _grace_ came by the Lord Jesus Christ. But _what is grace_? Can grace work contrary to law and abrogate it entirely? Certainly not. The laws of God are steadfast and sure, or the universe would become chaos. The law of gravity keeps our houses in position relative to other houses, so that when we leave them we may know of a surety that we shall find them in the same place upon returning. Likewise all other departments in the universe are subject to immutable laws. As _law, apart from love, gave birth to sin, so the child of law, tempered with love, is grace_. Take an example from our concrete social conditions: We have laws which decree a certain penalty for a specified offense, and when the law is carried out, we call it _justice_. But long experience is beginning to teach us that justice, pure and simple, is like the Colchian dragon’s teeth, and breeds strife and struggle in increasing measure. The criminal, so-called, remains criminal and becomes more and more hardened under the ministrations of law; but when the milder regime of the present day allows one who has transgressed to go under suspended sentence, then _he is under grace_ and not under law. Thus, also the Christian, who aims to follow in the Master’s steps, is emancipated from the law of sin by grace, provided he forsake the path of sin.