IN "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 88) Mrs. Eddy writes, "To love one's neighbor as one's self, is a divine idea; but this idea can never be seen, felt, nor understood through the physical senses." In this as in all else the teachings of Mrs. Eddy are in exact accord with those of Jesus of Nazareth, who taught that the fulfilling of the law must come through obedience to the two great commandments. He insisted on the rule, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," but he never taught that this was the love of personal sense. He illustrated this law in his own life and gave it a deeper significance when he left what he termed the "new commandment" that all his followers—Christians— should love their fellow beings as he loved his disciples and all mankind. This affection was never selfish, material, or physical, but spiritual and impartial, pure and unselfish; and the newness of the Master's commandment is found in the way in which he expressed love.
It is encouraging to note that Mrs. Eddy's teaching concerning the true nature of love is being recognized, as evidenced by this definition of the word in the Standard dictionary: "Love can never properly denote mere animal passion, which is expressed by such words as appetite, desire, lust. One may properly be said to have love for animals, for inanimate objects, or for abstract qualities that enlist the affections, as we speak of ... love of nature and love of virtue, . . . love, in its full sense expresses something spiritual and reciprocal, such as can have no place in connection with objects that merely minister to the senses."
Christian Science declares that to love as Jesus loved, one must shut out the so-called material senses as unreal, refuse to judge by appearances unrighteously, and cease loving the mere objects of physical sense. Loving in Science can only be the reflection of divine Love, and to see every man, woman, and child mentally as the reflection of God, and as pure, perfect, and spiritual, is to see the only real. Human beings can achieve this by laying down the material sense of persons and things and ceasing to love material self and self-satisfaction in matter. Matter can never satisfy, since satisfaction is attainable only from God, Spirit, who openeth His hand and satisfieth "the desire of every living thing."
