"O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace 'be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong." A beautiful assurance of God's love for man is contained in these words from Daniel (10:19). Let no one doubt that he is "greatly beloved." Here the word strong could also be rendered courageous or established and indicates the confidence inspired by the assurance of God's love.
An additional assurance of this love is found in the verses from the first epistle of John which our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, ordained should be read at the end of every Sunday service in the Churches of Christ, Scientist. The passage begins (I John 3:1), "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." May we not consider with gratitude the immeasurable love of our heavenly Father and ponder what it really means to be called a son of God?
Have we not all seen a child run to his father or mother for protection, assurance, and love? How much more does our ever-present Father-Mother God comfort, protect, and love His sons. Man, the image and likeness of God, reflects health, harmony, intelligence, dominion. This verse and the subsequent ones from John's epistle can take on fresh meaning each time we hear them read, for we may glimpse, through our understanding of Christian Science, new aspects of the blessings of sonship with God and of the all-inclusive nature of His love, which meets all our needs and heals sorrow, sickness, and sin.
If a father or mother knows what is best for a child, should not God, divine wisdom, who is impartial, loving, and just, know what we need, even before we ask? As we gain a sense of God as our Father-Mother we experience His guidance, counsel, and encouragement. When we are humble and obedient we can hear His voice speaking to us through our conscience. In the Bible we read (I Pet. 5:6, 7), "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, ...for he careth for you." He shows interest in and bestows His loving care on man.
"If children, then heirs," St. Paul tells us we are (Rom. 8:17)—"heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." We need to claim this inheritance and to be aware of all the good we really possess as "joint-heirs with Christ." Abundant supply is man's heritage, and as we look to Spirit for substance we shall prove that a son of God can lack nothing. A loving father would not take from one child to give to another. The good our heavenly Father bestows is not lessened because it is given to all His sons. There would be no envy, jealousy, or rivalry if it were thoroughly understood that all good comes from God and is available to each one as he demonstrates man's sonship with God.
The Bible teaches that since God loves us we should all love one another. What harmony there would be among men and nations if this demand were really fulfilled. Each one can do his part in promoting peace by establishing brotherly love in his own consciousness and making it practical in his experience.
In the Bible we find many inspiring passages assuring us of God's love for man and of man's inheritance. The patriarchs and the prophets saw something of God's care for His people. Christ Jesus patiently and lovingly taught his disciples of the Love which casts out fear, and John recorded the Master's teaching of God as Love.
A study of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, and our Leader's other writings, reveals the emphasis she placed on the paramount need for love, especially in healing. It is related that Mrs. Eddy once saw a crippled man in the street and as she passed she gently told him that God loved him. He immediately straightened himself up and walked. If anyone seems to be in need of healing or comfort, or if he feels unloved or discouraged, he will be helped by reminding himself that "man is the loved of Love," as one of our hymns says (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 232).
How can one reflect divine Love sufficiently to heal others? Mrs. Eddy once described her healing work to one who later became her student. Our Leader's words, recorded as nearly as the student could recall them, are given on page 74 of "We Knew Mary Baker Eddy," First Series, and read; "I saw the love of God encircling the universe and man, filling all space, and that divine Love so permeated my own consciousness that I loved with Christlike compassion everything I saw. This realization of divine Love called into expression 'the beauty of holiness, the perfection of being' (Science and Health, p. 253), which healed, and regenerated, and saved all who turned to me for help."
Many will readily acknowledge that man cannot be separated from God, but the teachings of Christian Science also make it clear that God, divine Love, needs His ideas to express Him. This inseparability of God and man is of fundamental importance in Christian Science, and when understood can bring comfort and healing.
As we progress in our study of Christian Science we learn to obey Principle and look to Principle rather than person for all good. A study of Mrs. Eddy's life and of her struggles to make her revelation available to mankind, as found in the authorized biographies, makes plain how she learned to rely on God. She teaches us that as we turn more and more to God we are lifted higher in our spiritual understanding and become stronger as workers in His vineyard.
A happy home and joyous and helpful companionships are outward and right manifestations of God's love, but our first need in bringing about right human relationships is to understand man's relationship to God and see that he reflects God's goodness and love. In her Message to The Mother Church for 1900 Mrs. Eddy gives us a beautiful thought which is well worth pondering. She says (p. 11), "The human, sigh for peace and love is answered and compensated by divine love." God's love is ever present in answer to, and to compensate for, our "sigh for peace and love." Is not the world today sighing for peace? And are there not many who might be said to be sighing for love? God's love is already ours; and God knows better than we do what we most need, and He supplies it. Situations may not work out just as we plan; peace may not come as we expect it; but who would doubt the wisdom of the all-knowing Mind, omniscient good, to answer and compensate in a far better way than we could ever outline?
As we learn to rely more and more on God, we see goodness everywhere, and our human footsteps become plain. As we seek to do God's will, putting self-will and human planning aside, the way is clear for us to see God's wise direction.
In the textbook our Leader writes (p. 66), "Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and love." Not a personal sense of goodness but divine goodness and love, not material prosperity but spiritual development, is unfolding to us. As we look back can we not see how each progressive stage in our spiritual development has revealed "new views of divine goodness and love"? This is indeed cause for gratitude, and above all for encouragement to go forward with assurance and confidence. "O man greatly beloved, ...be strong, yea, be strong."
