"More love is the great need of mankind," states Mrs. Eddy in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 107). Every Christian Science practitioner knows how frequently unresolved discords in human relationships are the root of physical problems and how surely the demonstration of Love brings healing. Every member of a Church of Christ, Scientist, recognizes the need for love in church work, because Love demonstrated in thought and action is the strength of a branch church.
How can we learn to live more fully the Christlike love that redeems and heals? Humbly and gratefully we can turn to Christ Jesus' example. Here is revealed the true standard for conduct in individual and church affairs. The Christian Scientist makes it his life purpose to follow in the Saviour's way. Although the world has long acknowledged the beauty of Jesus' lessons of love, Science reveals their complete practicality.
There is nothing more exalting than to demonstrate divine Love by fulfilling the Master's command (John 15:12), "Love one another, as I have loved you." Like sunlight flooding a whole room, this love is bound to be radiated in a higher sense of human affection in our home, our church, and in all our relationships. The more love we pour out to others, the more we have within ourselves.
Perhaps the greatest demand of church membership, and its grandest lesson, is to learn how to love our neighbor. This lesson is purging and exalting. No agency could be more effectively designed to help the individual learn it than a democratically governed branch Church of Christ, Scientist.
If we recognize this great blessing which our church holds out to us and respond courageously and steadfastly to its demands, we shall learn the greatest lesson of our lives. If we should turn away or withdraw ourselves in time of stress, we would lose the greatest treasure our church has to bestow upon us. Looking back on years of church membership, the writer finds that his greatest growth has come at times when the demand to "love one another" was the most challenging.
We learn in church work that reflecting divine Love does not mean thinking of ourselves as loving and of our neighbor as unloving. That would be self-righteousness. True love is not an outward cordiality while the heart is cold or the mind is critical. That would be hypocrisy. Loving our neighbor does not permit indulging in gossip or rivalry, because the purpose of Love is to heal. Love does not mean a numb neutrality toward others, because Love reaches out to bless all. Genuine love keeps on loving even though it meets no response, because divine Love is positive, dynamic, irrepressible. The inherent nature of love reflecting Love is to love.
Our branch church exemplifies the spiritual idea, Church, only in the measure that Truth and Love are demonstrated in the hearts and actions and lives of its members. This demonstration is the true work of building a church. When we get down to fundamentals, it does not matter whether our church is housed in a structure that is new or old, big or small, impressive or plain, to our liking or not to our liking. It does not matter whether we approve of the draperies, the potted palms, the soloist, the Readers, or the decisions taken at a business meeting. All such questions have their proper place in the orderly handling of church business. But they are questions of relative merit. What does count is how much we ourselves are demonstrating of divine Love. That will determine whether healings take place at services and whether visitors become useful members.
If an issue arises which seems to involve a matter of obedience to Principle and we feel called upon to stand for Principle, we should remember that divine Principle is Love. The solution will appear as we become willing to wait patiently and humbly, trusting Love to uplift the thought of the membership and show the way.
The Master encountered the worst of human frailties, but he always met them with love. Enemies persecuted him. His friends slept during his hour of trial. Judas betrayed him. Peter denied him. Thomas doubted him. But neither dullness nor distrust, malice nor treachery, could dim the glow of his love for God and man.
"I am meek and lowly in heart," he said (Matt.11:29). The patient word, the forgiving deed, the healing thought, the absolute loyalty to God—these characterized his work. At the Last Supper, facing his greatest trial and grandest triumph, he washed the disciples' feet and, according to Luke's account, told them (22:27), "I am among you as he that serveth."
There were times when Jesus went alone to a mountain to pray, but he never severed his connection with his little band of followers. He never gave any evidence of feeling he had outgrown the call to minister to others. Right up to the ascension, he lovingly labored for others and with others. Never was he too busy, too burdened, or too exalted to keep on working to bless others. What practical lessons for the church member today!
The Master's rebuke for evil was quick and positive. He had no patience with evil works. But always his aim was to destroy the evil and save its victims. This was illustrated in the redemption of the sinful woman, the healing of the high priest's servant after Peter had cut off his ear, and in the sublime words uttered on the cross, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).
So faithful was the Master's love that it outshone every cloud of hate; so tender, it healed the sick and dying; so pure, it survived the ordeal of the crucifixion and gave proof of man's immortality. This love is described by Mrs. Eddy in her definition of "Gethsemane" (Science and Health, p. 586), "Patient woe; the human yielding to the divine; love meeting no response, but still remaining love."
What enabled Jesus to express this unquenchable love? It was his pure goodness, and furthermore he understood and practiced the Science of Love, the Science of perfect God and perfect man in His likeness. He knew how to reject scientifically the suggestions of evil as unreal and foundationless. He saw the reality of man as idea governed by Love right where malicious mortals appeared to be.
This same redeeming method of Christ-healing is made plain for all of us to practice in Christian Science. This Science shows that in order to wipe out discord in human relationships, the correction must always begin with ourselves, even though the problem may seem to be outside us. Always our need is to start by lifting our own thought to the reality of God as omnipotent Love and of man as the pure and perfect image of Love. This scientific understanding enables us to exchange thoughts of fear, pride, hate, and selfishness for God-derived qualities, such as humility, faith, kindness, unselfishness—thoughts expressing Christlike love. Such understanding breaks the mesmerism of animosity and hate. It enables us to see beyond the illusion of warring personal minds to the oneness of Mind and the all-inclusiveness of Love.
Our great need is to bring our thinking into conformity with divine Love and let Love govern our thoughts and actions. When we do this, proper adjustments take place in our individual and church affairs under Love's omnipotent power and unfailing guidance. When Love really triumphs in our own thinking, Love will triumph in our affairs.
A fundamental step in demonstrating Love is to separate evil from the individual. Evil claims to present itself in the guise of person. But if we attach evil to our neighbor, who is it that is bearing false witness against man? If we see our neighbor as suspicious, aggressive, inconsiderate, unjust, where has this erring concept of man taken lodgment? Right in our own thinking! We are disliking our own concept of man!
Mrs. Eddy brings this out in "Miscellaneous Writings" where she asks (p. 8), "Can you see an enemy, except you first formulate this enemy and then look upon the object of your own conception?"
In Christian Science we are never called upon to love anything selfish or hateful. But we are called upon to see that man is never selfish or hateful, because he is the likeness of God, already loving and lovable.
When we separate evil from our concept of our neighbor, then we can destroy the evil as an impersonal lie about man. We can declare the unreality of any suggestion, presenting itself at the threshold of our own consciousness, that claims man could be ruled by evil. We can maintain our own understanding that Love creates and governs all and that evil has no witness. When we correct our own concept of man, we find we can love the true concept. Then Love governs our consciousness.
Sometimes we may fear we are at the mercy of persons or situations beyond our control; that someone is injuring, undermining, or frustrating us. But if we accept this as true, are we not believing in the existence of a power besides God? In Science we actually are never at the mercy of what another says or thinks or does, because we can prove that Love, divine Principle, is supreme and controls all that exists everywhere.
Believing someone has wronged us is believing in the absence of divine law. We need to maintain that the law of divine Love is ever present and supreme over all, including ourselves and our church. It takes humility to admit that Love has all power. But as we understand this great fact and maintain it steadfastly, Love will deliver us from discord.
Science reveals that Love is omniactive good. Love is the universal solvent. It dissolves hate. It neutralizes malice. It corrects injustice. It cancels injury and heals the heart. When we understand the law of Love and let it govern us, this law provides a way of protection or escape from whatever would harm us, enslave us, or rob us of peace. Love's infinite goodness supplies full compensation for every human wrong.
From all this we can see that demonstrating Love does not mean submitting to error or submerging our individuality. On the contrary, this demonstration means establishing our dominion over adversity and preserving our independence of thought.
Let Love rule in every heart! This is the Christian compact that unites the true followers of Christ and equips them with Christian power. This is the essence of Church. We worship rightly insofar as we acknowledge one omnipotent God, Love, and let Love rule our thoughts and actions. We experience baptism insofar as we purify our own hearts of criticism, resentment, selfishness, malice, and all those negative qualities which would cause us to react vindictively against the supposed sins of another.
We partake of the communion insofar as we attain the pure divine consciousness which bears witness to man's oneness with unchanging Love, his source. We eat the bread of Truth insofar as we return love for hate. We drink the wine of Love insofar as we let the spirit of Love rule our daily lives. Only thus can we know and commemorate the appearance of the eternal Christ in our individual experience and in our church affairs.
It is in our moments of repentance and humility, moments of exchanging the selfish impulses of the carnal mind for the spiritual affection of the Christ, that we truly receive the grace of God. Love lived brings the benediction of heaven. Love practiced is Christian power. Love demonstrated is Christ's way of salvation.
