THERE is no word, perhaps, with such variation in its meaning as the word "love." Poets; philosophers, religionists, have attempted to define it through the ages, but its real meaning and its practical use in human affairs eluded mankind in general until the discovery of Christian Science.
The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, says in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 275), "God is Love, and therefore He is divine Principle." This definition of Love as Principle clears up all abstractions associated with the words "love" and "loving." Principle is Love because as origin, source, Lawgiver, Love embraces all that exists as its own infinite self-expression. In this all-inclusive oneness are protection, care, guidance, government. What the world calls principle is cold, stern, rigid; and what it calls love is warm, tender, yielding. But to the Christian Scientist, Love and Principle are one, and truly synonymous.
Christian Science has been appropriately called a religion of love. But the appropriateness of such a designation has its root far deeper than the tolerance, kindliness, forgiveness, charity, and justice which characterize those whom we usually think of as loving. A man may express all of these attributes in their superficial meaning, which the world accepts, and yet not actually express the Love which is Principle. In fact, considered humanly, these attributes imply duality and give reality to evil, in assuming that there is actually something to forgive, something undesirable of which to be tolerant.
