Material theories insist that life is structural and organic, controlled by bodily or physical conditions, subject to laws of matter,—sin, sickness, and death. Jesus, that great lexicographer of the "new tongue," gave as his definition, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Again he says, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly," i.e., a knowledge of God. John says, "He that loveth not, knoweth not God: for God is Love." Considering these two inspired statements in their relation to each other, we reach this logical conclusion: A knowledge of eternal life is to know God. God is Love, therefore to know Love is to know life, or that understanding or state of consciousness which reflects the divine character. Again in I John, 2:10, "He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him." Here we have love given as a cause for harmonious advancement. "No stumbling," for love is light, and the "life was the light of men"—a life of love. Similar passages abound in the Scriptures bearing out this same thought. Jesus said, "The Father judgeth no man." Love does not judge us, but we are judged by the standard of Love, and all must, sooner or later, undergo this crucial test and each one meet in his own consciousness these great questions: Am I squaring my actions by Love? Is Love my model daily and hourly? Am I proving that Love is life, a knowledge of God with its accompanying demonstration, as it is written, "Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet."
It is impossible to know Love and not act it. So that the absence of true life in the world is due to ignorance of God-Love that worketh no ill to the neighbor, but casts out thoughts inimical to health, happiness, and prosperity; shedding over the darkness of mortal ignorance and sorrow the sunlight of Love—the life that is "the light of men"—lighting up the dark places of fear, dispelling shadows of sin and sickness, and "bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."
Christian Science has brought to the world the understanding of Life, the knowledge of the "only true God," and inasmuch as this is made practical, Christian Scientists become the standard-bearers of Life, proving all material theories of existence to be unfounded, and destitute of demonstrable knowledge.
