Sometimes the tangled brambles of worldly thinking may seem to block our good efforts and stop our progress.
But there is a remedy, an unfailing, wonderful remedy.
It is to learn to feel—and make felt— the love that reflects divine Love, perfect Mind, God. As we do this, we ally ourselves with the healing power of the universe, with all that gives real meaning to life and makes worthwhile achievement certain.
Mrs. Eddy is said to have described the Christly ministrations of divine Love substantially this very beautiful way: "Love is a Shepherd who goes forth into the darkness of the night, into the storm and wind, to find the lost sheep. This Shepherd of Love leaves the beaten path, searches the wood and marsh, pushes aside the brambles, and seeks until the lost is found; then He places it within His bosom and returns to heal and restore." Irving C. Tomlinson, Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1966), p. 90;
It is an extremely humbling exercise to ask oneself: Does my love express this Love? Does it reach through the storms and wilderness of the mortal scene, push aside the brambles of false material concepts, and help to reveal man as God's own son, free, worthy, cared for?
Jesus' love surely did.
Suppose you and I had been guests at the house of Simon the Pharisee when a woman with a history of immorality, and frowned upon by society, suddenly intruded upon the dinner gathering and proceeded to anoint the Master's feet with perfumed oil. What would our reaction have been? Would we have sat there indignant and bristling with criticism?
"Did Jesus spurn the woman? Did he repel her adoration? No! He regarded her compassionately," Science and Health, p. 363; is Mrs. Eddy's comment in Science and Health. In the woman's meekness and affection the Master recognized her genuine repentance. He knew he was justified in telling her, "Thy sins are forgiven."Luke 7:48;
It is so easy to say someone else is wrong and we are right. Or to nurse the dreary belief that we ourselves are always wrong and even hopeless. Or to forget that there is usually a considerable assortment of mental brambles to be eliminated from every individual's present outlook!
Love loves. It can't help loving, by virtue of its inherent nature. So when we learn to love in the spiritual and liberating way that reflects divine Love, won't our love actively extend not just to those who seem humanly attractive to us or with whom we can readily agree but to everyone, everywhere—not excluding ourselves? Yes, it will. And we will have that deep sense of caring and giving, that pure charity, which—deriving from infinite intelligence or Principle—is acute in distinguishing between good and evil and discerning the needs of all.
This love of Love never puts us in, or confines us to, wrong situations. It may call upon us to take very firm stands to avoid or correct such situations. At the same time, love never leaves the field until every effort has been made to wipe the tears away, to lift us up with Christly encouragement, and thus release right action.
After Jesus' stern rebuke had broken the mesmerism of disease that was claiming to ruin the life of a certain young man, this youth "was as one dead." But the Master's love didn't stop there. He "took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose."Mark 9:26, 27;
We can always find something encouraging and good to share, if we will look for it. Why do we ever withhold it? Are we afraid of putting ourselves at a disadvantage? Don't we appreciate how rich and secure we are as children of the Most High?
We learn, in Christian Science, that God, Spirit, not matter, is our true substance. Our life is a spiritually conscious experience, not a physiological phenomenon. All that pertains to us—all structure, action, law, all power to condition or control—belongs to God, not to mortal sense. In divine actuality, as God's expression of His own being, we reflect the consciousness of good's infinitude; and in this holy infinitude there exists not a single element of evil to bind us or claim us as its agent, target, or victim!
No brambles of fear can take root or clutch at us there. How could you and I, actively evidencing Love, ever believe we are separated from Love's care? We need to affirm that we can't believe it and we don't. If we love enough, reflecting the Father, we will feel Him so close, so powerful in meeting every need, that fear is proved to be an impossibility.
In the universe of Love there is no conflict, no rivalry, no dependency on willfulness or material resources. As Love's ideas we constitute one coordinate and harmonious whole. And as we admit this we enrich one another, we love one another. We don't have to fight and struggle to get somewhere; we only have to know we are already in our right place, abundantly supplied and at peace in Love's continuous employment. Seeing every activity as a proving ground for Love and loving, we will find blessings at every turn!
Our individual spiritual identity, reflecting the loving Father-Mother God, is pure throughout, healthy, whole, unblemished, beautiful. Such is the true, conscious identity of each of us. No thorny errors of self-centeredness or personal pride can disturb this heaven of consciousness. No leftover hurts, griefs, or sad memories can clutter it or claim to cause any trouble.
Expressing the vision of divine Love, we will see perfectly. Listening for Love's voice above all else, our hearing is bound to be clear. Our living of Love will disperse the whole maze of discordant mental patterns and habits and enable us to breathe freely of the fullness of Life as God. Before the understanding of perfect spiritual progression as our essential being, the crisscross suggestions of discord, suffering, and pain give way.
However complicated and grave the material picture seems to be, the Love that is Truth, operating in our consciousness as law, will sort everything out. It will still the tumult, draw off the poison, kindle compassion, purge, heal, restore, and leave nothing standing but what Principle unfolds.
As Mrs. Eddy has stated of Christian Science, "It shows the scientific relation of man to God, disentangles the interlaced ambiguities of being, and sets free the imprisoned thought."Science and Health, p. 114.
I was at one time summoned before the authorities of a foreign country as an accessory when a relative of mine was falsely accused of illegally using private property for commercial purposes. Fortunately, I had been striving for some time to be steadfastly conscious of Love as the universal Parent, Mind, and Life of all, so it was not difficult to feel an uplifting love for everyone concerned. This brought a calm assurance that exceeded mere human courage. "Just be honest!" was the message Love gave me. "Hide in honesty!" And this I did.
The result was that at the official hearing every falsehood was cleared away and our innocence confirmed. Love had extricated us from the brambles of misrepresentation and injustice.
God does not leave us comfortless. He is our keeper at all times. Nothing but His love is ever really encircling us or governing us, and it never fails in its perfect intent. This Love has given to each one of us a glorious spiritual selfhood, a boundless inheritance, and it is to be found in the loving that no darkness, no tempests, no brambles, can withstand. We can take possession of it. We can look forward to each day, not depressed, uncompanioned, harassed, but with fresh inspiration, vigor, and dominion.
So what will we see before us when our love pushes aside the brambles of false sense? A lost sheep? A sick body? A home, business, church, government, or world all snarled in warring elements, injustices, deficiencies, miseries? No. We will help to bring man to light, in all his activities, as God's perfect spiritual child, forever free, well, and successful in Love's shepherding care, secure and valued in the Father's family!
