IT has been said, with perhaps more truth than is generally realized, that more people die for want of love than of starvation, war, and pestilence put together.
It may be that education has been instrumental in leading us to think that love is a personal feeling, unrequited or gratified, rather than a spiritual quality to be learned, cultivated, and developed. Thus we may have drifted into the habit of lazily naming any passing passion or fancy "love," the result being the changeable nature of human affection. Men may love to-day, hate to-morrow, and be indifferent the next day. But this is not love.
In the illuminating thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians, Paul discourses on the important features of love. He shows that even if he had faith to move mountains, and generosity to give all his goods to the poor, or if he gave his body to be burned, and lacked love, it would profit him nothing. To Paul, love was of vital importance, the very essence of Christian character; and he showed how love is exemplified through its qualities—patience, gentleness, courtesy, tenderness, kindness, unselfishness, humility, meekness. Professor Drummond, in his book "The Greatest Thing in the World," takes up each quality of love and enlarges upon it. He writes, "Will you notice . . . that they are virtues which we hear about every day; that they are things which can be practised by every man in every place in life; and how, by a multitude of small things . . . the supreme thing ... is made up?"
In what could be rightly described as the epistle of love, John states that "God is love." Here we have the word in its highest definition—as God. Since God is the creator or source of everything that really exists, He must be Love, and the one source of love. To know God, to love God, we must also love; for as the apostle says, "He that loveth not knoweth not God;" and again, "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" Reverence for God, our prayers and sacrifices, are of little avail or profit unless they are accompanied by love for our brother. The test of our love for God is the quality and extent of our love for our brethren.
Christian Science teaches us how we can love scientifically and rightly under all circumstances and conditions. It teaches that love for our brother is a continual laying down, or rejecting, of the false sense of life as erring, sinful, diseased, dying, and replacing it by acknowledging and realizing that Life is God, good, and that man is the image of God. Jesus practiced this, the Christ Science. He said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." And we find the Master, the great expounder of love, continually laying down the false sense of life which the world in his day, as in ours, was holding as real, and declaring the truth about God and man. He showed that Love is unchanging; that it forgives enemies, heals the sick, and embraces all by its universal nature.
The teachings of Christian Science instruct us how to acquire real love by cultivation, by practice. Does a situation require patience? By Love's perfect way we should not only refrain from annoyance, but go farther by persisting in striving to see God's likeness, instead of a mortal offender. This simple process not only benefits ourselves, but goes a long way toward freeing another from what really does not belong to him: this love accomplishes much. And so it is with all the qualities of Love. They can be applied to all our human contacts. And thereby we really learn to know God, who is Love.
There is nothing inherently difficult in the cultivating of love, but it requires effort. The most unloving person can commence now to reflect divine Love to others. He can faithfully strive to see them as God's children, whom the Father-Mother loves now and always. God, Love, made all, and all are precious in His sight. By constantly practicing love we unlock the treasures of our own hearts, and find the key to our brother's heart; then the real, compassionate, genuine love comes to us as the reward from the Father for faithful work done in His name.
Love knows no boundary; it is impartial and universal. Love dissolves hate, greed, selfishness, and every other phase of hardness of heart, all of which are enemies to the peace and happiness of humanity. What a wonderful transformation the world would witness if love were more universally cultivated! We must therefore strive to reflect love to all equally. Real love means love not only of one's own country and nation, but also of all countries and nations; for in the last analysis there is only one nation of God's children, and only one language—the language of Love. May we all speedily learn this language, for hearts overflowing with love are accomplishing much toward the liberation of mankind.
Mrs. Eddy writes in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 247), "The little that I have accomplished has all been done through love,—self-forgetful, patient, unfaltering tenderness." Paul declared, "Charity [love] never faileth."
