DEVOTION is a priceless quality when it is rightly directed. Christ Jesus pointed out the highest sense of devotion when he said (Matt. 22:37), "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." He continued: "This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." The Master made devotion to Christ, Truth, conditional when he said (John 14:15), "If ye love me, keep my commandments."
True devotion calls for unwavering adherence to the demands of God expressed in the highest moral standards and the purest spiritual ministrations one can attain. Christian Science clarifies devotion and shows one how to lift it to heights of unselfed love with fresh inspiration. Mary Baker Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 241), "The substance of all devotion is the reflection and demonstration of divine Love, healing sickness and destroying sin."
Here is a kind of devotion that goes deeper than personal adoration either of God or of Jesus. It calls for works—the healing of sickness and the destroying of sin. Such works depend upon obedience to the command to love God supremely and to love one another, as the Master taught.
