MANY years ago Mrs. Eddy closed a letter to a student with these words, "Love in abundance to children all." The letter was read at the end of a day's encounter with seemingly insuperable obstacles, and its benediction fell like healing balm on a wounded and bruised spirit. Like Moses of old the student had been set a task, and the same specious pleas which tried to thwart his mission had promptly presented themselves: Who am I to do these things? What can I say that will break down this barrier? Doubt and discouragement had been prophesying defeat, but the Leader's loving message speedily put them to flight. Before the abundant riches of that love which is a reflection of divine ever-present Love, no sense of limitation of any nature could endure. What the student had to do, once Love's allness and error's consequent powerlessness were recognized and declared, was to draw unstintedly on an inexhaustible storehouse,—to reflect Love in love,—and the sense of hatred and antagonism would vanish like shadows before the light.
We all need to be reminded at times of this ever-available power before which barriers go down and foes are vanquished. Love is ever more potent than hate, even as the Master taught centuries ago, when he revoked the ancient command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy," for the newer gospel, which taught, "Love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest." To love the good, the pure, and the true, to love where love is reciprocated, is not difficult, but to be able to forgive and forget an injury, to do good to those who have wronged us, is an amplification of the golden rule which calls for extraordinary grace of heart and mind. Nevertheless this very doing, because it does demand purification of thought, is a step toward that ultimate perfectness of character which Jesus commanded.
To go forth imbued with that yearning, compassionate love which embraces the friendly and the unfriendly alike, which desires to heal them all even as Jesus healed the multitudes, is to offer that voiceless, unceasing prayer for the establishment of the kingdom of God in the hearts of men which alone can compass that peace on earth for which nations war in vain with the sword. It is to be armored for every possible test which may present itself in the round of the day's duty or pleasure; it is to go to rest in the consciousness of the protection of the ever-watchful keeper of Israel,—to declare with the psalmist, "I will fear no evil: for thou art with me."
