A MOMENTOUS and comforting statement by Mary Baker Eddy is to be found on page 225 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." It reads, "Love is the liberator." This scientific statement, understood and practiced by increasing numbers of individuals, will eventually heal the world of its ills, no matter what form they may assume or how persistent they may seem to be. Evil cannot abide in the radiant presence of Love.
As one ponders this declaration, two questions immediately present themselves: What is this Love which is so potent to liberate and heal? Is it practical in our human experience today? Perhaps no better answer can be found to the first question than Jesus' sublime reflection of Love when the Pharisees brought before him an adulterous woman. Viewing the situation from their own material point of view of fallen man, they identified the evil with the woman and, reminding Jesus of the Mosaic law that such should be stoned, asked him his opinion. But Jesus, not heeding their demands, stooped down and wrote upon the ground as though he heard them not. And when they continued asking him, he said, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." Being thus "convicted by their own conscience," they ceased their condemnation and departed. When Jesus was left alone with the woman, he asked, "Hath no man condemned thee?" And when she answered, "No man, Lord," he said, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." What a burden must have been lifted from this woman! Her sense of guilt and shame must have vanished as Jesus, reflecting divine Love, enabled her to glimpse something of her real selfhood;
It was Jesus' pure understanding of spiritual love which tore away the mask of sensuality. Revealing the power of Love, he gently bade the woman "go, and sin no more." Speaking of Jesus' ability to distinguish the sinning mortal from man, the true idea of God, Mrs. Eddy writes (ibid., pp.476,477): "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick."
