Our present civilization has become known as "the power age." The knowledge of how to utilize the great forces of heat and electricity has put immense material power in the hands of men. And yet it is significant that in the midst of these developments, and apparently on the threshold of greater discoveries, certain eminent natural scientists are pointing out the need for another, a higher, impelling power. To reinstate in the hearts of men the love which reflects divine Love, the love which Christ Jesus knew and manifested, would be, according to one of these, "the greatest triumph of the power age."
The fact that power accompanies the true understanding of God, Love, is being triumphantly demonstrated to the world today through the truths of Christian Science. The teachings of Mrs. Eddy have imparted to Christianity a power which is vital, dynamic, healing, and constructive; and have thus enabled the Christian to prove as Jesus did that God's love is practical in meeting the needs of men. Because divine Love is the only power, there is no evil to dread or fear. All real power is ever active on behalf of mankind's security, well-being, and success. This power, being an attribute of God, is spiritual, reflecting self-existent, self-sustained Mind, and therefore is independent of time, so-called material force, law, or construction. It is ever available, and by means of it the sincere seeker for Truth can remove mountains of fear, shatter false so-called laws and superstitions, dissolve obstructions to harmony and progress. By spiritual realization of this power the Christian Scientist can erect "the temple of God"—attain to the consciousness of spiritual reality and good. This ability and authority is in accord with Mrs. Eddy's statement in her Message to The Mother Church for 1900 (p. 5), "The spiritual sense of the Scriptures understood enables one to utilize the power of divine Love in casting out God's opposites, called evils, and in healing the sick."
The Christ-love is the sacred animus and motive power which should dominate the motives, thoughts, and daily life of the student of Christian Science, for our Leader writes (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 250): "Love is not something put upon a shelf, to be taken down on rare occasions with sugar-tongs and laid on a rose-leaf. I make strong demands on love, call for active witnesses to prove it, and noble sacrifices and grand achievements as its results. Unless these appear, I cast aside the word as a sham and counterfeit, having no ring of the true metal. Love cannot be a mere abstraction, or goodness without activity and power." This inspired activity brings us at once under the divine energy and operation of the laws of God—laws which decree health, harmony, and happiness for man. However, more is required of us than the mere declaration of Love's presence and power. We must become acquainted with the divine nature of Love by constant communion with God. We must feel its embracing presence, become regenerated through its purifying action, and have supreme confidence in its omnipotent ability to preserve, protect, and supply all good. Such spiritual activity enables us to put off the false sense of self with its fears, appetites, habits, arguments, and indulgences, and to express the gracious qualities of Spirit, such as unselfishness, consideration, joy, and temperance; for "love is the fulfilling of the law."
