ON page 113 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, has written: "The letter of Science plentifully reaches humanity to-day, but its spirit comes only in small degrees. The vital part, the heart and soul of Christian Science, is Love. Without this, the letter is but the dead body of Science,—pulseless, cold, inanimate." In his first epistle to the Corinthians Paul wrote, "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." In prayerfully contemplating Paul's message, one is impressed with the words "the greatest of these," the meaning of which cannot be doubted when the word "charity" is defined as "love" (see Revised Version). Then thought reaches out to grasp in a degree what it signifies to have in consciousness this great gift, the knowledge of true charity.
Paul also writes in the thirteenth chapter, "Charity suffereth long, and is kind;...charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,... charity never faileth"! Oh, divine gift of Love that "never faileth"! In possession of this gift men are kind, true, tender—aye, tender as Jesus when his great heart reached out for the saving of the world. Blessed Master! May it be our earnest prayer to be always kind. May self-righteousness, self-justification, unjust criticism, and misjudging be utterly destroyed through the practice of this keystone of life, this jewel of jewels —charity, love! The errors of sense will be wiped out in proportion as this love is acknowledged and demonstrated by us in daily living.
Is it not, then, our part to love with the love that reaches out to the farthest corners of the earth, embracing all mankind, the love that sees only the qualities of which it is self-composed? Even though our offers of affection may be refused and scorned, and our motives misinterpreted and misjudged by so-called mortal sense, the love that "never faileth" may go on breathing out its atmosphere of healing, and the heart grow richer because of it.
