The constant striving to love as Jesus loved was perhaps the one thing most accountable for Mary Baker Eddy's great success in spiritual healing and teaching. Mrs. Eddy's ability to love cannot be viewed as a special gift to her from God, for "God is no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34). It is evident from the several authorized biographies of her that the practice of self abnegation was a most important factor in enabling her to express such unselfed love for God and man. In no other way can the Christian prepare his heart for the influx of that Christly love which has its source in God, and which endows him with proficiency in the art of Christian healing.
To love as Jesus loved is to be acutely and intuitively aware of that divine embrace of pure affection which encircles all mankind. Mrs. Eddy, explaining the Revelation of St. John, writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 561), "John saw the human and divine coincidence, shown in the man Jesus, as divinity embracing humanity in Life and its demonstration,—reducing to human perception and understanding the Life which is God." This divine embrace is universal and does not exclude those who we may think have despitefully used us. Neither does it include only those whom we love and call our friends, but in the measure that it is recognized and felt, all mankind shares in its holy, healing radiance.
Mrs. Eddy's teaching on this point is clear and emphatic. Hear these challenging words from her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 (p. 18): "No estrangement, no emulation, no deceit, enters into the heart that loves as Jesus loved. It is a false sense of love that, like the summer brook, soon gets dry. Jesus laid down his life for mankind; what more could he do? Beloved, how much of what he did are we doing?" Her life answers her own question, revealing as it does how willing and obedient a disciple of Christ she proved herself to be in forgiving all and seeking blessing for those who considered themselves her enemies.
