It was a bleak day in winter. A Christian Scientist was returning from the home of one who was in a sense of great suffering, and her heart was filled with the desire to realize the healing power of the ever present Christ. Earnestly she questioned herself, What do I most need in my life so to acquaint myself with God that I may be a better worker for humanity? At this moment it seemed to her longing sense that she needed so much which was great and good that she felt almost overwhelmed. How could it all be gained? Yearning to be shown the way, she took up Science and Health and searchingly opened its pages. The first words that she read were on page 4: "What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds." What an answer!
She humbly prayed, Show me my needs.
Love gently whispered, Only through good deeds,
Meekness, patience, love, and grace
Canst thou behold thy Father face to face.
The path was now plain before her. After all, it was the simple, sweet Christ-way. As soon as she reached home she eagerly took the Bible and Science and Health, with the concordances, to make a new study of love. What joy and illumination followed! She saw that she need not struggle for that which seemed beyond her reach, because as she attained the unselfishness, compassion, and love which characterized the Master's life, higher perception would unfold. Through this study she realized as never before that the consciousness of love must be had in order to understand God. No truer words were ever written than those in the fourth chapter of I John,—"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." Surely, then, he that truly loveth, knoweth God. He who would perceive the "beauty of holiness," the glory of reality, must awake to spiritual love; for from this height only is Spirit revealed.
