The tender interest of divine Love in its creation includes every created thing, for Love would be less than Love could it disregard even the least of its own. The Master, Christ Jesus, called attention to the universality of divine Love's overshadowing protection when he spoke of the great and good God who heeds the way of the sparrow and clothes the lilies of the field. Unquestionably the Mind which maintains bird and beast, insect and blossom, fosters that existence with the tender solicitude impelled by its own divine nature, and can do no less than cherish all that lives. Solomon says, "A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel."
The Christian Scientist who studies well the chapter "Genesis" in the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," learns that the same God who fashions man fashions the tiniest thing that lives and expresses Mind, and that a heavenly condition of thought holds harmony for all the universe as well as for man. Knowing this to be true, and granting that the care and love of the creator extend to the infinitesimal, far beyond the present ken of mortal man, what should be the attitude of the Christian Scientist toward all created things, great and small? If he be found reflecting in his thoughts some measure of divine Love,—and divine Love means, in its expression, service, care, and universal good will,—can he bestow such consideration upon his fellow-men and withhold it from bird and beast and blossom? Must not every thing the Christian Scientist thinks about be lifted, in his thoughts, to the realm of the spiritual, and thus rescued from the curse of so-called material existence with its procession of sin, sickness, and death?
According to material sense testimony, every creature, from the greatest to the least, is under the blight of a reversed sense of existence, or, as Paul puts it, "the whole creation groaneth and travalieth in pain together until now;" and the redeeming truth which liberates man also brings to light the rightful inheritance of all the creatures of God's creation. Because of this, the student of Christian Science is solemnly bound to the task of making lighter the burden of every moving thing, and this he will do as the boundaries of his love broaden with the increasing spirit of true service. The great and loving God cares for all creatures in the very preservation of their existence, providing for them the same abundant supply, the same broad earth to dwell upon, which He provides for man. Then surely the Christian Scientist, who in all his ways is striving to reflect God, must express protection instead of destruction, consideration instead of neglect, kindness instead of brutality, toward the tiniest or least attractive thing that lives, if he would be a true reflector of that great Love which cares for all.
